


Assassin next door

by SammyHerondale



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Assassins, F/F, F/M, Humour, Living Together, M/M, Oblivious, Relationship Denial, both are smart, female naruto- hidden, secret, unofficially together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-01-04 12:25:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 49,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12168840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SammyHerondale/pseuds/SammyHerondale
Summary: Naruto and Sasuke have been neighbours for three years with few interactions with each other. These interactions were enough to tell each other all they needed to know about each other. After all, they are both professional assassins who happen to work for the same company. However neither of them this, as they work in different shifts and have never had to meet face-to-face at work. Due to circumstances (a missing wall, no gas/water) they have to live together and face the pent up frustrations they have had for the three years they’ve lived together.CURRENTLY ON HIATUS BUT NOT ABANDONED





	1. Conjoined

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Filthy Hands, Filthy Rich](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7448236) by [flies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flies/pseuds/flies). 



**This chapter was beta’d by Loveless Romantic 6.**

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Chapter 1- Conjoined

They hated each other. There was no other way to describe the two of them. They were both neighbours who had very few and very brief interactions with each other through the past three years. However, one meeting was all they needed to decide that they wouldn't get along and would never see each other again unless it was absolutely necessary.

Until now.

In front of Naruto was her apartment. Everything looked to be in order; the clothes she'd scattered all over the floor were still there and her kitchen was as clean as always. However, there were two things wrong with her room and that was the giant gaping hole in the wall and the man laying down on his sofa.

If she didn't have a headache, she'd complain but in the back of her head she remembered receiving a notice from her landlord and landlady stating something like this would happen. Yes, a notice; no agreement papers, no warnings, just a notice.

"Um, Hello?" Naruto said as she poked the man on her sofa. "You know this is my sofa, which is in my home, right dude?"

No movement, no twitch, no sound from the man on her sofa.

Correction, there was a  _dead_  man on her sofa. 'Now, how to dispose of my dead neighbour without anyone noticing? Surely people would notice! The landlady and landlord for starters, so maybe if I-,'

"Oh, Naruto, you're home." The voice of her landlord, and godfather, interrupted her train of thought.

She gave a groan. "There's a hole in my wall," she whined whilst pointing to the practically non-existent wall. 'How the hell did they manage to get rid of my wall whilst I was gone for work?'

"I know we didn't get your permission for this, but it's only for two months... maybe three, max. Since, ya' know, the idiot person on the floor below broke some pipes that were on his ceiling and now we've gotten rid of your wall. Don't worry, we'll cut yours and his rent by half 'til we can get this all fixed." Jiraiya explained calmly.

"Okay the wall I can deal with, no problem, for now anyway. Why the hell is my neighbour's corpse on my sofa?" she said whilst pointing to her neighbour on her sofa. His black hair covering most of his pale face as he slept peacefully.

"Well, he will be staying here until we can fix the problem in his apartment, but we also need to fix the problem in yours so… you can use the water in his apartment whilst he sleeps in yours."

That headache of hers was making itself known again.

Just what she needed after finishing from work.

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Sasuke didn't like change. He liked every day to be predictable, the same as the previous. Some called him paranoid, others meticulous and one person called him a stick in the mud, not that he ever paid mind to what people called him.

So one could imagine his surprise when he woke up with a numb leg and a lump of blonde hair in his face.

He didn't recall falling asleep in a bed that was for sure. In fact, he distinctly remembers falling asleep on his neighbour's sofa.

Slowly he got out of bed, as to not wake his sleeping neighbour. He assumed the blonde had put him on the bed to make him feel more comfortable.

He looked out the window. It looked to be about 6 am. Taking his phone out of his pocket to check the time he cursed seeing it. 6:23 am. Making it 28 minutes after his usual wake up time. What an excellent way to start the day.

Walking out of the bedroom, he walked through the 'wall' into his apartment. Thank god, they chose to demolish the smallest wall in the apartment.

He noticed that the floor was still dusty and debris was scattered across the floor and other places. One place he noticed more than the rest. His chair. The exact same chair his neighbour had, but in a different colour. That fact annoyed him for some reason. Probably because he couldn't stand his neighbour.

Sasuke carried on, walking through his apartment noticing more and more debris that would have to be cleaned when he came from work later on. He took a quick shower remembering what Tsunade had said yesterday. His neighbours' water pipes were blown and that his own gas was turned off.

Which meant that they had to use each other's apartments. That he had to hide all of his babies. Oh, how excellent this day was turning out to be.

Little did he know, that his day wouldn't be improving any time soon.

After all, luck hardly ever knocks on the same door twice.

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After living next door to each other for three years, Naruto has memorized her neighbour's movements.

The sound of his footprints, of him getting ready for work, taking a shower, eating one of his vegetables for breakfast, packing his bag and locking his door as he left. These noises are what kept her calm, knowing her neighbour was awake and, ideally, would be the first target of anyone that comes to rob them. However, every so often her neighbour would change things up and mess with her brain, as if he enjoyed mentally torturing the blonde.

That calm was broken today, as she noticed something. Her neighbour hadn't locked his door today. Which would mean she would have to go and lock it since the neighbour's apartment was currently her apartment with the lack of a wall. Meaning anyone trying to break in would try to kill her.

Key word; try.

Sighing heavily, she got up and looked at the time. 7:43 am. How odd. Her neighbour left 13 minutes late today. It made her happy knowing that it'd annoy her neighbour to no ends being late for work.

Naruto's job ensured that she worked by night and sleeps by day. To everyone else that she didn't work with, she was a security guard to a CEO who liked to party at night.

She locked the door, went back to bed and fell back to sleep. She woke up after what felt like 10 minutes later, but looking at the clock next to her bed, it was actually 3 hours later.

Getting out of bed, she grabbed an apple to eat and took out her blades. Ever since she was little she had a habit of polishing and sharpening her weapons. She always preferred using close combat weapons and her fists if necessary. She does, of course, have a few guns, but she had bad aim from far distances and since she was a night worker, guns were ineffective unless you had brilliant eye sight, which in one eye, she did not.

She then looked at the 'hole in the wall', if it could be called that. That accursed wall meant she had to hide all of her weapons. With her not having any water and the neighbour not having any gas, it meant they would be seeing a lot more of each other than she wanted.

She wondered what her neighbour worked as exactly. He always left early in the morning with a suit on and a brief case, so she always assumed he worked in an office. Then again, everyone thought she worked as a guard, when in fact she didn't.

In any event, she didn't care and didn't want to care. As long as it didn't affect her work ethic, she wouldn't let it get to her.

It was annoying enough that she had to be careful about her neighbour finding out about her job on a normal day with all walls intact, but now without a wall, that'll make things difficult.

Very difficult.

Fantastic.

Absolutely fucking fantastic.

Well, this'll prove to be a very interesting task. All she had to do was treat this as a mission and she would see it out to the bitter end.

Well, she could do that after she had slept some more.

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What does Sasuke hate more than his schedule being messed up?

Incompetency.

And in this company incompetency was happening very often. After all, this event was the second time this month he, a sniper, had to fight hand-to-hand with a man who broke past his groups' defences. If they had brains, or even eyes, they would have noticed the bulking man pass them.

But they hadn't and that was the reason why he had a very noticeable spot of blood. A large red dot of blood on his crisp white shirt.

"I'm telling you right now. No ordinary human being would be able to notice that little speck of blood on your shirt, Sasuke," said Sasuke's older brother, who was five years his senior.

"It is a very noticeable mark, Itachi. I think you need to get your eyes examined."

"I'm praised for my eyes, foolish little brother." Itachi sighed. This day keeps getting more and more difficult. Making sure his brother was safe at all times is a hard job and he really didn't like it when his brother get annoyed. It annoyed Itachi even more. "Just go home now. You've only got five minutes left. Enough time to pack up your remaining things and go home." After bidding his little brother good bye he went on his way.

Sasuke sighed. Itachi just didn't understand. It usually wouldn't bother him if he had a little speck on his shirt because he could just hide it under his suit jacket. But what about when he gets home? His neighbour was sure to notice and question it.

If there's anything Sasuke knew about his neighbour, it was that she was a very open loud-mouthed person that'd blurt out anything that came to her head and never gives up until she gets an answer she's happy with.

The number of times he's eavesdropped on his neighbour's conversations was too many to count, but he knew another thing for sure. The old saying 'curiosity killed the cat' did not apply to him.

Soon, Sasuke found himself out of the building and in the lobby of his apartment complex. As he entered the elevator, he went through his bag to look for his keys and cursed when they weren't there.

He definitely didn't leave them at work. He never takes his keys out of his bag. Never.

That meant he left them in his apartment.

How was he supposed to get inside if-?

He stopped his train of thought when he remembered he could knock on the neighbour's door and waltz right into his own. But that would mean he would have to see his neighbour.

This day just kept getting worse.

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Naruto was in the middle of tidying up some of the debris in her room when the doorbell rang.

She looked up at it and wondered who it could possibly be; she wasn't expecting anyone. Then, she remembered her neighbour forgot his keys today. Still, she put a hand in her back pocket where she kept her kukri knife.

She unlatched the three locks and opened the door and upon seeing her neighbour, she retreated her hand from her pocket, leaning against the door frame, smirking. "Forgot your keys? That's very unlike you."

Sasuke just walked past her into the apartment heading into his apartment, "Yesterday was pandemonium, I'm excused for forgetting them."

"Keep telling yourself that, pretty boy."

"Did you honestly just call me that?" asked Sasuke as he took off his shoes and hung his jacket.

"Yes, I did. And by the way I used your shower earlier since my water isn't working."

Sasuke froze turning around slowly to face Naruto with an expressionless face, "In other words, you trespassed."

"Um, no. Because that wall-" she pointed to the missing wall, "-is practically non-existent making our two large apartments, one huge conjoined apartment."

"I should at least hope you didn't use my things." He replied glaring at poor blonde.

"No, I just put my things in your bathroom. Don't worry, I brought my hamper there as well, so our clothes and towels won't be getting mixed." Putting her hand up to prove her innocence.

"Oh, sure. Make yourself at home. You may as well move into my apartment whilst you're at it." He replied sarcastically.

Naruto scoffed, "There's no need to be sarcastic. It's not like I enjoyed going into your apartment to take a shower. Anyway! It's hardly my fault I don't have any water!"

"Hn." He made his way to the hole in order to go to his side of the apartment when she spoke up.

"By the way, I swear you've got a vicious cat or something in your apartment. I went in earlier and something black and white scratched my left leg. Then, when I came out I heard growling." She winced at the memory. The damn animal took her by surprise.

"That would be my cat. Are you trying to call her vicious?"

"Hey, I'm just sayin' what I saw and felt. Not even my fox is that unfriendly." She replied pulling her left trouser up slightly to show her bandage.

In response, Sasuke just shrugged and went back into his apartment.

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What was the first thing Sasuke did when he went into his apartment?

He checked to see if his neighbour had gone through any of his things, after all, any assassin has lots of weapons in their rooms and he was no exception.

He noticed not a thing was out of place and just as his neighbour had said, she had brought her shampoo and shower gel as well as her hamper into the bathroom. Checking to see if his neighbour had gone through his bottom draw, he let out a sigh of relief when he found that she hadn't.

However, he did notice that something seemed off in the room. Some of his things had been moved, and he didn't think his neighbour would have done so without telling him.

Carrying on around the main areas in his apartment nothing seemed too odd, except a window being fully open. He'd have to ask his neighbour about that later.

Happy that he hadn't found anything overly suspicious, he went into his bedroom, not noting the fact that the door was ajar and proceeded to get ready.

Walking to his bed, he unbuttoned his jacket and removed his tie. He proceeded to unbuttoned his shirt. Once he had taken off his shirt and let it go on the bed he heard a noise.

He looked around to see what it was, but didn't see anything. He then went to his walk-in closet and once he opened the door, he heard a growl.

Despite Sasuke being a day time assassin, he has amazing eye sight in the dark. The only reason he opted for day shift was because he didn't want to see his stupid rival.

Given that fact, he could clearly see the silhouette of an animal crouched down in an attack position. He closed his eyes and when he opened them…

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As Naruto was putting the food on plates she heard something from her neighbour that she had never heard from him before.

A scream.

Sasuke came running in the room in nothing but his trousers and skidded to a halt pointing to the gap in the wall and panted out, "That is- not my- cat!"

"I bloody told you there was something evil in there!" Sasuke jumped back and landed gracefully on the coffee table and took out his handgun as Naruto took out her kukri. Both of them aiming their weapons towards the hole in case anything came out at them to attack them.

They both froze, realizing what it was they had just done. Naruto was the first to put back her weapon as Sasuke jumped off the table and put his gun in back pocket.

"A Kahr CM9." Naruto snickered.

"And a Ka-Bar combat kukri knife is better I presume?" he replied.

"Hell yeah." She paused looking at Sasukes' ankle, "You're bleeding." She stated and nodded towards Sasukes ankle.

Sasuke looked at his ankle with a confused look about his face when he realized how he must have gotten it, "Must have scraped it whilst I running in here." He said as he walked over to Naruto's bookshelf and opened the bottom cabinet, taking out the first aid kit like he has lived here for years.

"You're still not dressed." Naruto stated as she looked away, her face going slightly red. She noticed, unintentionally, that his neighbour had a great physique. 5'10", six pack and toned muscles all over with not a centimetre of fat anywhere. She noticed that she was staring at her neighbour when she realized they hadn't been formally introduced, "I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumi."

Whilst he was applying first aid to his bleeding wound, he replied, "Sasuke Uchiage. And once I'm done here I'll go back into my place to get dressed"

"I don't think that'd be a very good idea. After all, there is a fucking vicious thing in your apartment."

All Sasuke did to reply was grunt.

"Well, where're you gonna sleep tonight? Bed or sofa?"

There was a prolonged pause before Sasuke replied, "The sofa since I'm being careful not to wake you when I get out and it's troublesome. Plus, you know… You're a girl."

Naruto hummed in acknowledgement before saying, "Yeah about that… I haven't actually told anyone besides you, Jiraiya, Tsunade, my aunt and my boss that I'm a girl, so if you see me dressed as a guy, don't question it. As for sleeping, just sleep on the bed. You don't have to be careful, I'm a heavy sleeper. Besides, my bed is more comfortable than the sofa and I won't be on the bed today. I finish late in the morning."

In truth, Naruto doesn't have guests over very often, and in her sofa were the a few weapons, just to be safe, however it was always best to keep the target it a closely monitored area, even if she wasn't going to kill him.

Even though her bed had a few weapons in it, it wouldn't be hard for her to just remove them to some-place else temporarily.

Sasuke already knew she dressed as a guy, but didn't know she only told a few people she was a girl. A thought popped up as to how she tucked away such a large chest, but told that thought to go away.

He got up and walked through his apartment with his gun in hand, prepared to shoot the damn thing if he had to. Luckily it hadn't come to that and he managed to get by the rest of the evening without another encounter with the evil cat.

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"Hey Sasuke. Are books really better than movies?"

Sighing he replied, "No movie is ever better than the book." His cat was perched across his lap, one of his hands holding a book whilst the other petted her whereas Narutos' fox was resting round the back of her neck and chest.

"So how would you rate Shadowhunters on a scale of 1-10, in accuracy to the books?" she asked as she petted the foxes head.

"0.5. They failed miserably in making any of it accurate. The book was better than that shit. Now shut up." There was a total of five minutes of silence between the two of them, much to Sasuke's shock, which turned into annoyance as his neighbours mouth opened to speak but he managed to speak first, "Shouldn't you be at work right about now? Won't you be late if you don't leave?" Sasuke asked.

Looking at Sasuke for a moment before looking back at the TV she said, "Usually, but today the manager wanted me in a little later, which would be…" she paused looking at the clock before getting onto her feet and continued, "I need to be gone in half an hour. I'll be in my room if you need anything." With that she went into her bedroom and got ready.

Changing her casual female clothes to something somewhat darker to blend in with the night, she settles for a button-up dark blue t-shirt with a jacket and chose a pair of black trousers. Under the jacket on both forearms were her knife holsters, as was another on her belt, hidden under the jacket. Not forgetting to bind her chest as well.

Once she had changed her clothes, she went for her duffelbag, making sure she had everything she needed for tonight's assassination. She had to pack extra, since tonight she would be working with a different team. And if that didn't make things hard enough, the team she was working with, was from the day shift.

And as the cherry on top, two of them were from Uchihas' team. She swore Inaho sure knew how to get under her skin sometimes.

Inaho Vermillion. The manager of the night shift at her company as well as her very own aunt. She was her late fathers' cousin yet she was only a 5 years her senior.

Once she knew she had everything she got up and left her room. Before leaving the apartment she said, "Don't let me catch you sleeping on the sofa again tonight. Just use the bed." With that she left for work.

And that was how it all started. How the two went from indifferent neighbours to room-mates. There after commenced their abnormal lives together.

But little did they know just how much their lives would change within the next few months.

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THANK-YOU FOR READING!

 


	2. Shisui

 

Sasuke sighed loudly when Naruto finally left. _Peace at last_.

He chose that time to properly look around her apartment. He got off the sofa and wandered to the entrance to start.

To the right of the entrance was the wash room, with a washing machine, dryer, clothes rack and other necessities.

Walking out of the room and going forwards was the living area which was very similar to his own. It had an L shape sofa with a matching couch, a rounded coffee table, and a large TV, the same as his own, under the TV was a fireplace, not the best idea to place one, but who was he to judge? Next to the TV was a bookshelf which shelves went left and right in a pattern.

Behind the living area was a kitchen, which was a lot fancier than his own. Not surprising considering Sasuke couldn’t cook anything other than precooked food such as frozen pizza.

The counter covered the walls as there were draws above and below it. Opening up the draws, each one was full or mostly full. The gas cooker was large with a chimney and oven as well. She had a simple table with four chairs out as well. At the end of the counter covering the wall was a bar like wall that had a picture.

Picking up the picture it was a much younger Naruto being picked up by who he assumed was her dad and perhaps her mum. She was on her dads shoulder as her mum jumped up behind them. Clearly no one knew the picture was being taken as none of them were looking in the camera. But they all looked happy.

After the living was a simple bathroom; a bath tub with shower head, sink, toilet and cabinet with a mirror.

Across the bathroom was a store room with cleaning supplies and there was another door leading to a food store room.

Going out of those two rooms he made his way to the last room. Her bedroom.

It wasn’t like your average girls bedroom. In fact, it looked a lot like he had imagined it to. A king sized bed, night stand with a lamp, a desk, and a walk in closet. He was tempted to go in the closet but did not want her to think he was going through her things, it was very rude and impolite to do that to a girl.

 

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Naruto sat in her office as he thanked every higher power in heaven. The mission she was supposed to do tonight had been delayed as the target changed his schedule for everything to be moved to the next day.

She contemplated going home since there was very little else she could do. The mission was planned, everyone knew what they were doing and when they were doing it. She had contacted Neji to make sure he knew what was going on and asked that he relay the message to whoever was going to join them.

She sighed and thought of what to do. If she went home, Sasuke would be there. If she stayed here she would be bored out of her mind. If she went out with her friends, she’d have a hangover the next day, which was something she really didn’t need.

Instead she chose to do some training. Neji was still here and so were Sai and Shisui. The boys were usually more physical compared to the girls, whose job roles mostly consisted on the seduction part. That was more dangerous than her own line of work, because she would never be able to risk blowing her cover if she had none, whereas the girls spent a lot of time with other people where it was easier to get caught. She held a lot of respect for them because of that.

She managed to convince the boys to spar against her their replied being, “Very well.” Replied Neji.

“Sure.” Replied Sai.

“Any day to show you up Naruto.” Replied Shisui, the cheerful bastard.

The four of them made their way to the training area, hand-to-hand combat only. No weapons allowed. Once one hit the ground- they were out. The usual rules, this way no one got more than a bruise or black eye whilst sparing.

First round was Neji and Sai against Naruto and the first guy beaten would stay out of the next match.

Although Neji and Sai currently work in different departments, they used to work together, before Sai moved into the night shift, so their teamwork was almost flawless. However, against Naruto Uzumaki, if it wasn’t completely flawless, you are dead.

Sai was the first one to go down as he had gone from behind to restrain her and he managed to , however Naruto was flexible and managed to raise herself up and behind him, then she hit the pressure point in the back of his neck causing him to stumble forwards, dizzy, as she had not done it properly.

Shisui joined the fight almost instantaneously, this was where it got hard. Shisui and Neji were top of their classes and both were older than her. However she had been living the life of an assassin the same amount of time that Shisui had, despite him being 7 years her senior.

They both attacked after the other, hardly allowing her the time to attack back as she was blocking most of their attacks. Some of them she couldn’t avoid. After five minutes of this she decided to back flip three times and ran to them, jumping over Neji as she used his shoulders as leverage.

She didn’t allow him time to react as she kicked him in the stomach causing him to groan and hold onto it, giving her the time to jump onto his back, making him land on his stomach. Neji out.

All that was left was Shisui. He had been smiling in the corner like a psychopath slash sociopath. It was a very creepy look that gave her the shivers, which she somewhat managed to hold back.

They both stayed where they were, watching the others movements as they wondered which one would crack first. Neither of them had very much patience and charged at the exact same time.

They both knew each other, they had worked together for years. Shisui was one of the very few people who knew her secret and was about the only Uchiha she could stand. Although she got along with Obito as well.

They trained together, fought together even faked being lovers to get flirtatious people off their cases.

The fight lasted ten minutes, both of them landing several hits to the other, but neither of them backing down. In the end it came to stamina and endurance, both of which Naruto had an abundance of, something Shisui lacked, which led to Naruto’s victory.

At the end of the match both of them were panting hard as they made their way to the bench, getting a drink each.

“Hey Naruto? Could I stay at your place tonight? Inaho is staying at mine and Itachi’s place tonight and you know what they’re like.” Asked Shisui as they made their way to the showers. Naruto would take a shower first as Shisui stood on guard to make sure no one came in.

“Ugh, don’t I know it.” She shivered trying to get rid of the memory of walking in on the two of them on her old dining table. She had gotten them to burn the thing as they left. She had not looked the guy in the face and never saw him again after that. They were also very, _very_ loud. “Let me make a phone call before I say yes to that, okay?”

 

\--------

 

Sasuke was relaxing on the sofa watching CSI when his phone rang. He furrowed his brows, they were ringing on his personal number which only his cousin and brother knew of. Cautiously he opened it and answered, “Hello?”

“Oh Sasuke, you answered. It’s me, Naruto.”

“How did you get my number?” he asked, confused as to how she had gotten his number when he never recalled doing so.

“Oh. You left your phone on my coffee table so I decided to poke about to find your number, and here we are. Anyway I called because a friend of mine wants to stay the night at my place but since you’re there I wanted to make sure you were cool with it.”

“Shouldn’t you be working right now and not wondering about this?” he asked as he turned the volume down, slightly annoyed she had gone through his phone, but he would tell her off for that later.

“My uh… the person I was supposed to be… looking after changed their schedule of the evening for tomorrow, so I don’t need to be here anymore. So what’s your verdict?” he could practically see her hopping from one foot to the other as she tugged on her clothes- wait a second.

“Are you taking a shower?”

“Wow. You turned my casual phone call into a sex call. Well done. I think I should applaud you but I really do need an answer.”

His face turned red at her comment. He hadn’t meant for it to sound like that, “Sorry that’s not what I meant. I could hear water and thought you were in the shower…”

“I am in the shower right now. I just finished sparing with some of the people I work with, that’s all.”

He tried to get the image of naked Naruto in the shower after having a sweaty session of fighting. _Bad thoughts, Sasuke, bad thoughts._

“Could you put this person on the phone?”

“Um sure, give me a minute to get redressed. I’ve just finished my shower and he’s standing guard at the door.”

“Wait, he? As in, there is a guy, with a dick, in the showers with you, _right now_ , whilst you are _naked_? And you want to bring this guy _here_?” oh he definitely didn’t mind if she bought this guy here. He would kick his ass and then some, for thinking he could go near his blonde neighbour.

“Basically.” She had put him on loud speaker before yelling out, “Yo Shisui! Get over here! I’m decent and someone wants to talk to you!”

Sasuke was reminded of his cousin Shisui for a moment before he told himself, his cousin would never endanger the life of an innocent girl like Naruto.

“Hello?” he was proven incorrect, you should always stick to your first guess. It was indeed his cousin, “Hey, Naruto. Who is this I’m talking to exactly?” he asked the blonde.

“Hm? Oh, it’s my… uh…”

“Her roommate.”

 

\------------

 

Shisuis eyes grew wide as he heard the voice of his cousin come through the phone. He quickly excused himself and let Naruto get read properly. “What are you doing, living with Naruto?”

“None of your business. Besides, she doesn’t know what I work as, so if you’re staying over the night, pretend I work as a bodyguard alright? I don’t need her in danger. And another thing, what makes you think you can stand in the same room as her whilst she’s naked?”

He had never heard his younger cousin so irritated and angry in a long time, yet he placed that thought to the side as he processed what he had just said. Sasuke and Naruto are hiding that they are assassins that work for the same company. Interesting. Even more interesting, he sounded angry because he was alone with her. Shisui had slept with one of Sasuke’s ‘friends’ and he had never received this much emotion out of him.

“No one but me knows she’s a girl, minus her boss of course. She needed a shower so I suggested I would stand watch to make sure her secret stayed a secret… What name do you go by, baby cousin?”

“Sasuke Uchiage. What do you go by around her?”

“My real name. Shisui Uchiha. But I wouldn’t go about telling her you’re an Uchiha though. She really doesn’t like our family very much.” He shrugged his shoulders as she sat down, waiting for Naruto to finish getting ready.

“That’s fine… Just make sure not to blow my cover around little Miss Uzumi, got it? And make sure not to breath a word of this to Itachi, otherwise I’ll be burning all your anime collectables and manga.”

The humour Shisui had been feeling due to the closeness of their names and proximity was washed away in an instant. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh I would. I don’t want her in danger because of me Shisui. Even if I have to lie to her forever.” Quite a bold statement if Shisui did say so himself, but Sasuke would never see it that way.

“Your secret is safe with me, little cousin. Oh, I guess I shouldn’t call you that for the rest of the evening. Let’s make this easier, we’ll tell her your brother is my roommate, hence why you know me. It’s not a lie, anyway.”

This was priceless. Sasuke brother was sleeping with Narutos aunt, and that was why he would be staying with his cousin and friends apartment. Both of which were sworn rivals who had never met each other with their real names, and were currently living together. If only he could tell someone without there being a risk to his collection.

“That’ll work… Why do you need to stay at Naruto’s place anyway?”

“Itachi’s girlfriend is staying the night. You know what they’re like.” Shisui could practically feel Sasuke shivering as he recollected one of the many times he had either walked in on them or heard them go at it. The two of them did it like bunnies. How they managed that with Itachis low stamina was beyond his comprehension, and quite frankly, he didn’t want to know. Well he did, just not very much.

“Hey, so what’s the verdict, _honey_?” Naruto asked Sasuke as she took the phone out of Shisuis hand, said male raised a brow at the endearment.

Sasuke huffed in annoyance from the nickname, but chose to let it go. At least it wasn’t a… colourful, nickname like he knew she was capable of. “He can come. But he needs to stay on the couch. NOT the bed. You will also be in the bed.”

Shisui left to go take a shower, snickering as he did so, which in turn confused Naruto because she didn’t know why he was laughing.

“Um… that’s how it usually goes anyway… did you say something to him? He seems to be in a rather _giddy_ mood.”

 

\----------------------

 

As Sasuke waited for Naruto and his cousin to come, he tried to think of ways for Naruto to not realise his secret identity. The threat he gave to Shisui would usually be enough to keep his mouth shut, but there was no guarantee that he would actually stay quiet.

Just as he contemplated whether he should simply knock his cousin out, the distinct sound out Naruto talking and keys jingling caught his hearing so he quickly picked up the book he had been reading earlier and quickly turned it the right way round.

“Did I hurt your Uchiha pride that much? I swear, you’ve all got sticks up your asses. Sasuke, tell me, do people need to look like their puppies, or cats in Uchiha cases, have been kicked?” for a few moments he thought his cover had been blown and that she knew who he was before he realised she was talking about his cousin.

“What are you going on about?” he asked with a scowl as he placed the book he was ‘reading’ on the coffee table.

They took off their shoes and hung their coats as they made their way over to where he was on Narutos couch. Naruto ended up sitting on the arm rest of the couch as Shisui sat on the sofa, looking highly amused and pleased with himself despite the evident layer of annoyance that shrouded him.

“I was sparring with the boys earlier and I won against Shisui here and he’s very _pissy_ about it. He has more mood swings than a _girl_ , and I _am_ one!” Clearly Naruto felt the need to torture her neighbour as she decided to sit on his lap, arms around his neck, bringing their faces unnecessarily close.

“First of all… this is a man’s pride on the line, it is understandable. Second of all. Get off me or move out of my face.” He snuck a peak at his cousin and saw he was holding back laughter. Gritting his teeth, he moved his hands where the blondes’, and detached them from his neck.

Huffing she got up and started to introduce them instead, “Sasuke this is Shisui Uchiha. One of the very few of his god forsaken family I can actually stand. Shisui this is Sasuke Uchiage. And we live together. In both apartments, of course.”

Sasuke was too busy wondering why the blonde hated his family so much to answer despite the blonde looking at him for support. Instead she decided to wiggle around till she was comfortable, making Sasuke hold her hips and hiss in her ear, “Stop with your wiggling.” He then looked up at Shisui and smiled as he saw the despair in the other’s eyes. He could tell his cousin wanted to tell him brother and was contemplating whether or not he should shoot his cousin for his silence.

“Oh. Sasuke and I already know each other.” Replied Shisui as he waved a hand, as if this was old news.

The blonde on his lap jumped slightly at the proclamation, “Oh! How do you know each other?”

Before Shisui could reply Sasuke did, “My brother lives with him. I’m told his girlfriend is staying over. Even if Shisui and I don’t get along very much… it would be bad if he was mentally scarred again because of them.”

Naruto stiffened, causing him to look down at her, wondering what he had said that had caused her to do so. “Your brother… is sleeping with my aunt…”

“What?”

Shisui could not hold back his laughter as he let out a loud boisterous laugh, falling onto the sofa as he started to hit the floor as well. The two neighbours grew very concerned. Shisui was an Uchiha, even if he often didn’t act like it, he never laughed like this.

Naruto got up and went into Sasukes apartment and filled up a glass of water, giving it to the boy and soon after he calmed down enough to start talking, “Your brother, Sasuke, is sleeping with Naruto’s aunt, Inaho. Both of you have walked in on them so many times… haa… a-and your godparents… Jiraiya and Tsunade… oh. You have so much in common it’s hilarious to look at!” he went back to laughing causing Naruto to grow very annoyed at his and decided to throw a knife at the floor next to him, causing the laughter to die in his throat.

Sitting back on the sofa he cleared his throat. “Um so I’m on the sofa… do you mind if I have the TV on? I’m not tired right now, ya know?” the both hummed in return.

“Sure, just keep the volume low. Sasuke, I’m going bed now. Coming?” asked Naruto as she stood up again and stretched.

“You go on ahead first. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” He didn’t let his eyes wonder away from Shisuis as they both started a small fight with them. She chuckled in reply and kissed his head, causing him to blanch and glare at her. Said glare had no effect as she simply laughed and went into her room.

“So… you’re gonna be sleeping with her. All I ask, Sasuke, is don’t be as vocal as your brother and his girl.” In retaliation for the comment Sasuke threw a cushion at his head. The other male didn’t even move out of its way as he let it hit him on the head, knowing he deserved to be punished for teasing the younger of the two.

Sasuke huffed and went to Narutos room to go to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 ------

THANK-YOU FOR READING! LEAVE A COMMENT ON WHAT YOU THOUGHT!


	3. Trouble in Paradise

Naruto dragged herself through her apartment door at 3 am the next day.

Whilst the assassination had been a success in itself the mission around it had gone terribly.

First of all, she and Uchihas’ team did not get along, one or the other making snarky comments and jabs till one of her owns team mates called an end to it. Second, one of Uchihas’ nearly got stabbed so as she pushed said team mate out of the way, and in the process she got shot in the shoulder. Third, the bullet that shot her had a poison in it that was making its way through her right now.

And here she was now. Currently, in an immense amount of pain with a still bleeding shoulder, dragging himself back into her apartment a few hours before her estimated arrival.

Had it not been for the poison coursing through her veins right now she would have noticed the person following her. She would have also been able to fight off the said person when they started to strangle her and push her against the wall.

However Naruto did manage to drop a vase she had in her apartment which in turn awoke her neighbour- not that she knew.

As the assailant was strangling her, Naruto was, of course, struggling against him. Punching him, kicking out, and trying to get the man in-between the legs but she barely had any strength in her.

Just then a shot was heard and the assailant jumped back a few feet, giving Naruto enough time to get away from him, however she was dragged by the arm into her bathroom which had the light on.

Only then did she realize she never turned the lights on when she came in and inwardly she berated himself for not having done that, if she had she would have been able to identify the person who had attacked her in her own house. However she had a thought that it may have been one of the people that had ambushed her and her teams tonight, but all of these thoughts were kicked out of her mind as she was shoved rather roughly into her bathroom floor with by her very brooding neighbour.

“What the hell is going on?” he hissed at her. Okay so he was more than brooding, he was full-on pissed off.

“Well it’s a long story but… this guy somehow stalked me home and now he’s trying to kill me.”

All she received for a reply was a grunt before he asked, “Do you have any weapons? A knife or gun in here? Something to hurt the guy. That was the last bullet.”

Naruto paused, thinking twice before answering. She could tell him that there were a few weapons in her cabinet under the sink but what would the consequences be? Would Sasuke question it and what would his reply be? “Under the sink.” Apparently her mouth didn’t quite understand her brain at the current moment and decided to say what it wanted, much to her dismay.

Sasuke moved and opened the cabinet and as soon as he had a few weapons came out and spilled onto the floor. He quirked an eyebrow and grabbed two guns, one for himself and one for Naruto and made his way to the door, opening it up ever so slightly and pointed the gun to the intruder who thought he would be getting out of this place alive.

In the midst of aiming Naruto said, “Just so you know, I have a pretty bad aim with a gun right now.” As she said that Sasuke had taken two shots, one aimed at the assailants’ head but he dodged it slightly and somehow it had grazed his left ear, and the second shot his straight through the forehead killing him where he was.

Sasuke stood up from his crouched down position and walked into the room not noticing that Naruto had gotten up as well and started to make her way through the apartment as well.

As Naruto was walking her eye sight started to blur and it took her a moment to realize that it was most likely due to the poison in her system or possibly due to large amount of blood that had been oozing from her wound, she couldn’t really tell. And as her vision blurred, her movements became sluggish and at some point she must have collapsed because the next thing she knew, she was on her sofa and her neighbour was taking off her shirt.

“Don’t.” she said groggily. “Leave it.”

Sasuke glared at her for saying that, “You’re bleeding and need medical attention. I am also assuming that whatever injured you had poison in with how you are reacting. So shut up and let me apply first aid or you are going to go to the hospital.”

She whined in reply. She didn’t like either of those options. “I know first aid myself. Let me do it.”

A grunt was all the reply she got before Sasuke carried on unbuttoning her shirt till she got to the fourth button and he saw bandages around Narutos chest. His face went a feint shade of pink, but he focused on the task at hand. Unbuttoning all the buttons he saw a tattoo on Naruto’s stomach that he hadn’t known she had.

Shaking his head, he got the supplies necessary in hand as he removed the blood soaked bandage and replaced it with a new one after disinfecting it, he really didn’t want to deal with his neighbour having an infected wound, explaining that would be too troublesome.

Once that was done he changed the shirt into one that was just on the sofa and looked up to see that Naruto had once again fallen asleep, in what had to be a very uncomfortable position.

Sighing he heaved Naruto up into his arms, and as earlier he was shocked to find his neighbour quite light for her figure, but didn’t let the thought ponder in his mind.

 

\------------

 

At 5 AM Naruto woke up thanks to two mobile phones ringing, one being hers and the other being Sasukes, both stopped ringing at the exact same time.

She took a moment to look around and observed her surroundings and she noticed quite a few things were not how she remembered them to be. Firstly, she was in her bed when she distinctively remembered falling asleep on the sofa. Secondly, her collar bone and shoulder hurt a lot. Third and maybe the most important, she felt the weight of an arm around her and the warmth of a chest pressed up against her back.

She fought off her primary instinct to turn and get on top of whoever it was on her bed and suffocate them, as she realized that the person who was _cuddling_ her was, in fact, her neighbour.

She debated, stay in her nice, warm bed or go out of her bed and do something useful and then later go back to bed.

Sighing she slowly disentangled herself from the warmth of her neighbour, as to not wake him, and picked up her phone whilst making her way through the bedroom and into the living area on her apartment.

She sat down on her sofa, placing her phone besides her, and tried to recall the events of the past night.

She was on a mission that they finished early but had been bad overall, after the mission she said to the team to report to HQ and that she would file in her report later. After that she went home and on her way she realized that the gun shot that wounded her had poison in it, but she had lots of antidotes to many different poisons in her apartment so it would be best to go there.

She went home and didn’t lock the door since she was sure no one had followed her, but someone had and said person started to strangle her. Then as she was struggling against the assailant, if you could call it that, a shot was fired and he was shoved into the bathroom by her neighbour.

After that her memory was fuzzy, but what she was definite about, was the fact that Sasuke had killed the assailant.

She whipped her head in the general direction she believed the assailant to have been and noticed that there was no body, not even a spec of blood was on her orange carpet.

Thinking a bit harder she remembered fragments of the rest on the night, which wasn’t much since she had passed out not even fifteen minutes later.

Sighing once again she rubbed her face and thought about what she should do next. Question why her neighbour or even how he got rid of all of last night’s evidences or ring work and tell them about the assailant? She figured that she had a duty to tell work that there was a breach last night and let them deal with it.

She picked up her phone and once unlocking it, she realized that noticed forty-three missed calls and sixty-nine text messages. All of the calls and messages were from work, and more specifically her aunt Inaho and Shisui.

Calling her aunt now would be pointless as she was most likely sleeping since she also works the night shift so she chose to ring Shisui who was also the last person to ring her.

After just one ring she answered, “Naruto! Are you alright?! Your team all came over last night to hand in their reports but I was told you weren’t there. That and the fact that you hadn’t handed in your report. Are you okay? All of the reports said you were severely injured so of course you’re not okay- and when you didn’t answer we all, of course, went into a frenzy and-”

She chose then to interrupt him since he had hardly even taken a moment to breath between sentences, “I’m fine. Kinda. Ya know how it is with me Shisui. Besides the wounds not that bad. I’m doin’ alright. Oh! I need to tell you this. Last night, when we finished my, you-know-what, there was this guy…” with that she told him about what had happened and he hung up after saying he had to inform the boss, and mumbled something about paperwork.

With that all done she went back into the bedroom and went back to sleep, she needed the rest after all.

 

\-------------

 

Sasuke woke up not long after his neighbour had come back into the bed, in fact he felt Naruto leave the bed but decided to let the blonde get on with her thing.

As his neighbour fell asleep he reached over to the night stand and picked up his phone as it had started to ring, but as he picked it, it stopped ringing.

Sighing he got up and checked  his phone to see that he missed six calls from work and seven from his brother.

Deciding to call back work and then his brother, he got out of the bed and went into the kitchen to make some breakfast, either pancakes or toast.

After three rings, TenTen, the sort of secretary, answered, “Sasuke! Hey. Sorry to bother you so early in the morning but could you come into work an hour early? You can leave an hour earlier as well if you want but we have a situation that you need debriefing on about a mission last night.”

“I can do that. Do you know why my brother rang?”

“Yeah it’s the same reason as why I called so just drop him a text, he’s just gone into a meeting with Lady Vermillion. She seemed quite pissed. Well anyway gotta go! Bye!” with that she hung up the phone and he sighed, running a hand through his hair.

Toast it was.

Seven hours later Sasuke was sitting in the briefing room with his some members of his and Uzumaki’s team that had gone on a mission together last night, they seemed to be sporting a few injuries but apparently nothing major.

The meeting had been delayed as the higher ups wanted a word with Itachi and Lady Vermillion.

They had been waiting for ten minutes when Sasukes brother, Itachi, and the night manager, Inaho Vermillion, walked in.

“Right. So we are here to discuss last night’s mission. Reading all of the reports except for Naruto Uzumaki’s who verbally said his report to Shisui. It can be safe to say that there is a problem. Do any of you want to tell me what said problem is?” said Itachi and when nobody replied Inaho carried on for him.

“Team-work between different teams is sorely lacking. Now I get rivalry, it’s healthy and helps growth, however, day squad you may be used to taking orders only from day members but last night was a mission of great importance, and because of your foolishness of not communicating properly with the night members everyone was injured.

“Now I’m not saying it was all your fault, but what I am saying is that if you had said to the usual night team that there were people who got passed you then most of this could have been avoided. In fact if you had stuck to the original plan and listened to the orders Uzumaki had given you, you wouldn’t be here. Any questions?” she looked at everyone as she said all this.

“Hn. I have. What are you going on about? I haven’t read the reports so I don’t know what you are going on about.” Sasuke said, looking pointedly at his brother and night manager.

“Simple, little brother. You were aware that some of your team was needed for a night assassination with Uzumaki’s team, and they had specific orders to follow. Sure those orders made the mission longer, but it also made the mission safer. Your team did not follow orders, presumably to get the mission over and done with sooner, and then when they run into unexpected trouble they fail to tell the other members of the squad what was happening. Kabuto over here was about to be stabbed when Uzumaki moved him out of the way, and ended up getting shot instead. He sustained a few injuries but said that none were too bad and if he would be needed he could come into work tonight, however we have told him to stay and rest at home.

“Now another thing that needs to be pointed out everyone. Last night Uzumaki was stalked and attacked, whom by in a mystery but I want everyone on high alert. It could have been a thief, or it could have been another assassin, he doesn’t know, because the bullet that shot him was poisoned. Next time a mission of day and night are joined I want all orders followed. I will not tolerate a repeat of this ever happening. Am I clear?” when everybody nodded their head for gave their verbal confirmation Inaho finished it all up.

“Now the night members who went on this mission will be taken off field duty and stuck with desk work for the next month due to insubordination and incompetency, I expect no complaints. Sasuke will work with the night team if he needs any more people for missions during this time. You may all leave.”

And with that said they all got up and left the room.

Looking at his watch Sasuke noted that there was only fifteen minutes before he needed to leave so he went to his desk to sort through a few things before leaving when his old class-mate and college, Shikamaru, asked him, “What’s up? You seem stressed.”

Deciding to go for the truth he said, “One of the walls separating mine and my neighbours apartments has been demolished, I’m sleeping in his place and he’s showering at mine. Both apartments are currently dirty despite how much we clean. My neighbour is a werido who enjoys making my life a misery.” **(A/N he is addressing Naruto as a male because she requested he do so.)**

His friend nodded his head in contemplation, “Relationship issues then. They are mighty troublesome.” Sasuke turned his head and looked incredulously at him, but he just continued, “It’s quite risky in our line of work to take a lover. The possibility of them being taken by our possible enemies is a high one.” Sasuke gave him a ‘wtf are you going on about?’ look, but once again it was ignored, “Unless of course you’re in a relationship with a person equally dangerous, in which case that would make you even more dangerous, and we can’t have that. Oh wait, then there’s that over-protective older brother, Itachi, of yours. He’d probably chew anyone that came your way, you know, besides your fan-girls here.”

“Okay. I’m just going to stop you right there. You may have been the valedictorian of our year but that doesn’t mean you can try to read into my life. I feel very much violated right now. And another thing, you are not a psychologist nor a therapist, much less mine. Please stop, for my sanity.”

Thankfully his oldest friend decided to stop, and Sasuke doesn’t think he ever loved a human any more than right now.

Everyone gathered in the lobby when Sasukes phone rang and all eyes went onto him.

Not only because having the volumes off was a policy as it could make the target aware of your position.

No, they were looking at him because it was his private number, they could all have sworn that the only person who knew his personal phone number was his brother and as he was in front of them all, it wasn’t him.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow, giving him a knowing look, whereas Itachi gave him a surprised look and everyone stared to catch his conversation and who it might be with.

Cautiously, he answered the call keeping it a short distance from him, “Hello?”

“Sasuke? Is that you? Are you holding the phone away because you don’t want to talk to me, eh bastard!” he glared at his phone. Naruto. “How could you?! I trusted you and you went behind my back!”

“Care to explain what it is I’ve done wrong this time? Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“It’s nearly four in the afternoon, only an idiot would be asleep at this time on day.”

“Precisely.”

“And to answer your question. You said shows are never better than books! Yet you watched it without me! How could you?! I feel cheated.” Ironic since Sasuke could clearly hear the show on in the background.

Sighing he looked around to see everyone staring at him and waved them off as if to say nothing to see here. “Look, you weren’t there and I was bored with nothing to do. Stop sulking. I know you’re watching it without me as well.”

“I’m watching what you watched so we can finish this off together!”

Massaging his head he thought of what to say next and said, “How did you get my number? I just changed it.” he manoeuvred his head so that no one would be able to tell what he was saying by reading his lips.

“I graduated in the top three of my college in I.C.T. and other subjects. I’m not an idiot, it’s relatively easy to do, especially when you have the person’s phone.”

Sighing again he asked, “How you feeling? Dizzy? Sick? Flustered? Do you need me to pick some medicine from the pharmacy before I get back? Or maybe something to eat? You shouldn’t walk around with that leg injury of yours.” Sasuke admits to being an ass, but he was a caring ass when he needed to be. He really, _really_ didn’t want to be dealing with his neighbour needing to go to the hospital so he would do whatever he had to do to make her feel better.

“What do you want for dinner? I can either make it or you could buy it and I’ll transfer the money into your account.”

“I’m in the mood for pizza. Do you want to make that or should I buy it. And No need.”

“Um if you could buy a few things for us then we can have my home cooked pizza. Whatever toppings you want text it me, I’ll check if we have them and I’ll text you back for whatever we need. I’ll check your kitchen as well. Sound cool?”

“Hn.” He looked back and remembered where he was. “I’ve gotta go. I finish work early but since I’m going to the shop I should be back around my usual time but be prepared for me to there early.”

“Kay-kay.” Naruto breathed in and said in a loud girly voice, “See you at home honey!” and both of them hung up.

He sighed deeply before slowly turning around and facing everyone. Though he had the exterior of a calm and collected person, Sasuke was wondering how long until everyone of the day and night shift knew about this conversation and what sort of rumours would spread out because of it.

Most likely everyone would now by tomorrow and as for rumours, he could all but guarantee that majority of them would say he had a secret lover that he was hiding from everyone, including his dear older brother who was currently being dragged out by his Lady Vermillion, he seemed to be quite feint.

Sighing for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day he got up and left to go get what he needed for dinner.

 

\------------

 

When Sasuke got home he was greeted by a truly wonderful thing. His neighbour pinning him to the door and holding a knife to his chest that was, until she noticed who it was and her eyes widened before backing up.

“Sorry. I thought you were someone else. There’s this guy who’s been outside the house all day and I thought it’d be him.”

“That-” Sasuke replied whilst pointing to where the person was, “Is a co-worker of mine that I asked to stand watch here today in case anyone decided to kill you in your sleep.” He walked into the apartments, changing his shoes and went into the kitchen to put the shopping on the table. “Should you even be moving about threatening people? With your leg injury, shoulder injury and whatever injury you have on your chest, it must be hard you get about your day. Are you even licensed to have a gun?”

“I work as a bodyguard. I told you that.” She replied, and she followed Sasuke into the kitchen and started to pack some things away and put others to the side so she could cook easily. “And I don’t have a chest injury. Those are my chest bindings to keep them hidden. I’m pretending to be a guy, remember?

“Are bodyguards supposed to have trigger happy fingers and bad aim?” Sasuke asked just as Naruto got to the counter.

“My aim is not that bad. I’ve just not been having the best of days. And I am not trigger happy, I much prefer hand-to-hand combat and close range weapons.” They were quiet for some time, and they both packed the things away in silence, that was until Sasuke spoke.

“You’re not going to work tonight. Call in sick.”

“I may enjoy cooking and don’t mind cleaning but I am not obliged to listen to your orders. And another thing. Never. Give me. Orders.” Naruto looked Sasuke right in the eyes as she said that and what Sasuke didn’t notice was that Naruto held a knife to him and that got him by surprise.

“Why the hell are you acting like a girlfriend who doesn’t like her boyfriend telling her what to do?”

“What the hell did you call me?” Naruto narrowed her eyes and shoved Sasuke onto the counter, holding the knife to his throat tighter.

He sighed and said calmly, “Okay that was out of line. I apologize. I just don’t think you could work properly with all your injuries. It won’t help you to get batter.” He put one hand on Narutos arm and another on her face to move her hair out of her eyes. He froze when he realized what he was doing and slowly retracted his hands.

“Sorry. I’m- I’ve not been myself these past two days. I’m not… normally like this.” Naruto said as she placed the knife back on the counter and moved back a bit to give Sasuke room to move. “So! You still want pizza? If I start them now I can have them fully cooked in a bit, since I already made the dough and tomato base.”

“Hn.” He may have grunted out a reply but Naruto had just done 180 on him. And threatened him with a knife to the throat. Again. In all fairness, Naruto had once said she didn’t like being compared to women. _Note to self, find out why Naruto has issues being addressed as a woman without having your throat slit and left to bleed to death._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've basically got some extra time on my hands for a week or so,so I'll try update as much as I can, most likely just one for each story, but I promise to try at least.   
> Anyway, thank-you for reading and see you soon! :)


	4. Rooftops

 

 

Sasuke was not in the best of moods the next day. He received a message sent to all assassins that work with the company that there was another breach of security and everyone had to stay out of work till further notice. 

Which meant he couldn’t kill people.

And he would have to be with his neighbour all day and night.

Last night Naruto had decided to stay home, as she should have, but had kept on bugging him throughout the night. One moment she’s fine, watching a show and the next she makes a joke about Sasuke, which in turn makes him snap and Naruto snaps back. That was how the night had gone up until they had to go to sleep.

They had agreed to use the bed as Naruto wouldn’t let him sleep on the sofa and he himself did not want to sleep their either.

 _‘We’ve been neighbours for years. This should be no problem. We’ve slept together before’,_ were both of their thoughts.

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

The other times they had shared a bed one had already been unconscious and it was only ever for a few hours.

First Naruto had said she didn’t want to sleep on one of the sides. She had to sleep in the middle. Then Sasuke said that he had to sleep in the middle as well. After over a half hour of arguing about it they both decided to sleep in the middle with their backs to each other.

The night had been peaceful after that.

But the next morning he woke up to find the two of them _cuddling_. Narutos head on his left shoulder and an arm around himself. Sasukes own arms were enclosed around the female, keeping her in place. Their legs were also tangled around each other.

Then he had to get out of the bed slowly, disentangling himself from Naruto without waking him up.

Fail.

He got out of the embrace yet somehow Naruto got a hold on his arm and started to cuddle it, so he had to get a pillow and replace it with his arm. Once he got out of the bed Naruto had woken up and questioned where he was going so he explained he was going on with usual morning routine to go to work and the other fell back to sleep.

Once he got out of the room he checked his phone and noticed the message stating he was going to be in hell today.

Hopefully the crappy start to the day wouldn’t define the rest of the day as well.

By 8 o’clock he had cleaned the kitchen, taken a shower, gotten dressed, eaten and then realized he had nothing to do. So instead he decided to clean up what little debris was around his side of the apartment.

He had to admit, Naruto had done a great job cleaning considering she hated to do it. There was only a bit of dust and stone here and there on Narutos side and a bit more on Sasukes side.

Well, he couldn’t expect her to clean up his side for him.

So after an hour and half he had finished tidying up and noticed Naruto still wasn’t awake and he still had nothing to do.

Well, there was one thing he could do.

 

 

 

 

Naruto was awoken to a very loud and very annoying, yet very distinct, sound.

The sound of a gun being reloaded.

Groaning into her pillow and peeking an eye open, she said, “What’s with all the noise? I’m tryin’ to sleep ‘ere.” Sasuke only grunted in response and carried on loading his guns.

Sasuke looked like that child who usually sulks and broods in the corner when no one wants to play with the toy he brought or is currently playing with.

Except, here, the toy would be his guns.

Making him, not only grumpy, but very, _very_ dangerous.

Naruto, having had enough of the noise disturbing her sleep, shot up and glared at Sasuke then yelled, “Sasuke, what the hell?! We have a huge conjoined apartment and yet you choose _my room_ which I am _sleeping in_ to load your guns?!”

“It’s past 8 o’clock, idiot. Way past time for you to be in bed. Up.” Sasuke replied, putting down the gun and going over to her and taking the duvet fully off of the blond.

Naruto got up, glaring at her neighbour slash room-mate. “I was enjoying myself, in case you couldn’t tell.” The reply she got was a simple roll of the eyes as she got out of bed.

“Shut up and stop complaining.” And he sat back down to carry on loading yet another gun. He looked up when he saw Naruto hadn’t moved yet his attention was drawn to the blondes exposed stomach. It had a tattoo he hadn’t seen before.

“Well somebody’s pissed off.” She replied seeing the behaviour of her neighbour changed to sub-zero.

“I am not pissed.” Sasuke replied slowly between each word, not forgetting to glare at his blond neighbour.

“Let me guess.” She said in a sing song voice, “Something came up at work.”

Sasuke paused his gun loading before carrying on and replying, “Something came up and all employees have to stay home.”

“So…” she started, “you’re angry… because you got a day off work…” Naruto decided in that moment that Sasuke Uchiage was a workaholic who had a gun fetish and couldn’t go a day without shooting somebody.

Sasuke looked back at Naruto with an expressionless face and said, “Basically, yes.” Sasuke suddenly got up after having put a few sniping guns in a bag and said, “Come on.” And he started to leave the bedroom.

Naruto quickly got out of bed and followed him out of the room and to the entrance of her apartment and asked, “Where exactly are we going? I just woke up not even five minutes ago.”

“The roof. We own the top floor so we have free access to it.” He replied as he changed his shoes and put on a hoodie.

“Um no we don’t. And what on earth are we going to do on the roof? Wait are you seriously going to walk out carrying your guns like that? In broad day light?” she said as he out on his shoes and locked the door behind them both.

“We own the top floor to ourselves so I don’t see why not.” And they made their way to the end of the corridor where a door opened to a set of stairs leading to the roof. “And in case that tiny ass brain didn’t notice we _own the top floor to ourselves_. No one will see us.”

“Oh and using guns in the middle of the day, in broad day light isn’t suspicious one bit? And is most defiantly not going to get us caught.” She replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“We’re not using the guns, per say… we’re more… practising with them.”

Naruto blinked, having nothing to say back to that comment.

“You’re wounds don’t seem to be bothering you as much as they were yesterday. That’s some fast heeling you got there.” He said to distract him from what was currently going on through his head. None of it was good.

“Hmm. I usually get right back on my feet in no time anyway.”

Sasuke smirked as they reached the roof, “Well then. Naruto Uzumi, today I shall teach you how to aim properly like a human being and not some monkey.” He said, throwing his arm around Naruto as if they were old buddies.

Naruto had a bad feeling about this.

A _very_ bad feeling.

And her bad feelings… usually end in a high note.

 

\---------------

 

It’s a funny thing how much a person’s life can change in such a short time.

One moment, Naruto is living a happy life on her own the next his landlady and landlord decide to demolish a wall between her and her neighbour’s apartment. Said neighbour seemed to be okay with the situation, at first. But then she realized that Sasuke was a workaholic, bodyguard, gun obsessed psychopath who seemed to have an abundance on sniping rifles on hand.

_Where the hell does he keep all of them?!_

Yet, Narutos one and only downfall was her social activeness. Whenever she meets someone she has to be friends with them. _Why?_ Jiraiya had always told him _‘Make friends with as many people as you can, less people can kill you then.’_ Then his damn wife, his landlady, would say something like, _‘Talk to people. Make friends and good things are bound to happen.’_

Look where that advise got her. On a roof, with her neighbour, at 8:30 AM without each eating their damn breakfasts and in the freezing cold. What her psychopathic neighbour called _‘practise.’_ Did she forget to mention, they were on the roof, in the cold, where anyone could see them. And said neighbour seemed to be more than willing to kill him as well by the simplistic comments.

Yet Naruto was optimistic. She always saw the bright side of things. She saw the entire world his home as he was born into it-

“Just because you’re born into the world doesn’t mean it’s all your home. It simply means that the precious air around us and a fully functioning human body is going to waste on you.” 

Apparently, Naruto hadn’t said that all in her head, as she had originally thought. _Wait a second_ , “Hey! I am not a waste of air a space! I happen to be very important. I mean without me your day would be significantly boring today, now wouldn’t it?!” she shouted indignantly. Sasuke only grunted and rolled his eyes in response.

“If it weren’t for you I could be spending time doing other more… productive activities right now. And it’s not that cold outside.”

“That’s easy for you to say! You’re dressed appropriately for the weather! I’m in my bed clothes here!” she replied, gesturing to himself and his clothes. She was in a tight fit t-shirt and guy’s shorts. Freezing.

“I said we were going to the roof. I didn’t say you couldn’t get a jacket. And if you wanted to get changed you could have and still can. I’m not a sadist.”

Two thoughts went through Narutos head for that comment. _Details, details. Sasuke focuses on too many details and as for that sadist comment… well that is entirely debatable._ For as long as Naruto had known Sasuke, she knew him to be pure evil and seemed to be quite content in making others’ lives a misery.

But it would seem that said details made it a very hard mission to win an argument against the taller male which seemed to make him quite content with himself with that smug face.

Instead of focusing on the others face he decided to focus on what he was doing. He seemed to be, once again, loading some more bullets in his rifle and looked through his scope at something.

“What are you doing?” she asked suspiciously but disguised it as curiosity.

“Testing.” Sasuke muttered, then he suddenly through said rifle at the unexpected blond neighbour. Catching it quickly she noted the fond look her neighbour was giving his way. Did Sasuke have a crush on her?

Before she could voice out her thoughts Sasuke said with a fond smile on his face, “That was my first rifle and took my first kill. Shoots up to 1700 meters and beautifully pierce through my un-expecting victims.” The expression on Sasukes face was that of a person who is having a fond memory of a lover.

“Oh.” Was his only reply. Naruto came to the conclusion that Sasukes obsession with guns was a bit over board. He even had a thought that the rifle had been his first love who he never truly got over.

Sasuke moved his head in a ‘come here’ or ‘follow me’ gesture and said, “Come here.”

Both males went to the ledge of the roof and ducked down to a position similar to crouching and took a moment to observe the busy streets of their neighbourhood.

Couples were walking hand-in-hand and other people were on their own carrying groceries and other just walking whilst on their phones to people.

Neither of them had time to fully observe their surroundings as they had both come here to snipe and not look and their surroundings.

The idea in itself was absurd. Naruto a sniper. Those words did not belong in the same sentence. They did not even _sound_ like they belonged together. Naruto preferred close combat and had a very bad aim from distances. Mostly due to being partially blind in one eye.

“Right so the first rule of sniping is to not shake like a loose leaf.” Sasuke said as he moved the gun over Narutos shoulder. God, did he have to do _everything_ himself around here?

“Well sorry. But I’m not exactly dressed for this sort of things. Lest you forget, I _am_ in bed clothes ‘ere. And it’s freezing up here. What the hell do you want me to do?” she asked, not disguising her current annoyance.

Naruto was a night assassin who was used to hand-to-hand combat. So she generated enough heat to keep her warm by constantly moving around. Whereas here, she was sniping, meaning she couldn’t move and by default could not generate any body heat.

“Tsk. Here.” Sasuke threw his hoodie he had been wearing to Naruto who gladly took it, taking in the smell feint smell of gun powder and of course, Sasukes usual smell as well. Naruto, begrudgingly, admitted that he really like both of those smells combined. He held a strong smell of cologne and cats. Not surprising, Naruto was very sure she would smell of fox if someone sniffed her. 

“Only since you offered. Remember, I didn’t ask for it.” She said as she slipped into the hoodie. Paying close attention to the smell, it also had that smell that Sasuke had inside of his closet. Not that she would ever tell Sasuke that she had been inside his closet.

Sasuke burrowed his eye brows for a moment before saying, “Don’t punch me… or elbow me in the ribs. Okay?” when Naruto confusingly nodded her head Sasuke moved behind the blond haired female and wrapped both his arms around her.

Naruto stiffened, fighting off her instincts that screamed at her to get the taller male away from him as she noticed that Sasuke was only trying to show her how to properly and securely hold a rifle.

The _embrace_ was cliché and, dare she say, relaxingly warm and felt very slightly… romantic.

If anyone saw them now and didn’t see the gun, they would assume that the two were a couple with how Sasuke kept a firm hold on the blond and the way Narutos face was tinted pink. Whether that was from the position the two were in or because it was cold outside was a mystery to her.

“And this part goes here between your shoulder and collar bone-” he stopped abruptly when he noticed the slight wince Naruto gave. With one hand he removed the rifle and with the other he gently massaged the back of his shoulder to ease the pain. _Idiot. How could you forget she was shot? It wasn’t even that long ago_.

As he was mentally berating himself Naruto was leaning into the hand massaging her shoulder and suppressed a moan as they eased some tension that had been gathering there. “It’s fine. Doesn’t hurt that bad. I’m good enough to carry on, if you want to that is.”

Sasuke paused his movements and said, “Sorry. We’ll continue but tell me when you need to stop.” With that he gently placed the rifle back into position but slightly away from his neighbours wound. “Right, then you need to aim then do this and shoot.” They shot the rifle and a feint pop was heard in the background. Naruto blinked, once, twice. Sasuke had just shot a tin can that was on the roof ledge of a building that was too far for her to be bothered to estimate.

“Okay, now you try.” Sasuke said as he let go of Naruto and got up, pointing to a bottle that was a ledge of a few buildings away from them.

Sasuke reminded Naruto of a teacher she once had as a child. Her math teacher to be exact. She had questioned the teacher as to why three times three made nine and the teacher merely glared at the boy and said ‘ _Logic is how boy. And common sense._ ’ And at that age Naruto hardly knew what he was going on about but went with it anyway. It was always like that with her teachers anyway.

Naruto just shrugged and went with it. Leaving both of her eyes opened she did just as Sasuke said and shot.

She missed.

“Naruto. That shit didn’t even move. Try it again.”

Naruto frowned but did as she was told.

She missed again.

She tried again and missed.

She tried another time and missed again.

“You need to fucking aim before pulling the trigger. Make sure the target is in the centre of the scopes circles then shoot. Now, try again.”

She did just as Sasuke said for her to do but again she missed.

“Calm down. Don’t shake and don’t hesitate. If it helps think it’s the assailant from the other night and pretend you’re shooting him for something.”

Naruto tried that and had she been shooting something in a closer range there was a possibility of that actually working, however it didn’t and she missed again.

But there was something she had managed to do. With all the shooting she had done she managed to shoot a _J_ into the wall.

She looked towards Sasuke, he gave him a crooked grin and Sasuke just sighed and nodded his head in approval.

Looking around Sasuke pointed towards the building next to theirs. “That red container over by the balcony.”

Seeing it she nodded, and once again tried aiming and shot. This time, she closed her half blind eye.

It hit the container which splattered red paint all over some clothes that were currently drying on that balcony and any chances of the two celebrating was completely gone as the bullet continued to cut through the air and hit the glass window of a shop, shattering it all over the round and the next thing either of them knew, a scream was heard and a body fell limp onto the ground.

They both stared with blank expression, neither saying a thing until Sasuke broke the silence, “This was, by far, the best aim I have seen come from you yet.” There was a hint of approval Naruto noticed in the comment from the dark haired male.

They both laughed and fist bumped however when what had happened finally sunk into them, their smiles vanished and they reassessed what had happened.

They had just shot and most likely killed a person. Outside of work. Where it was perfectly _illegal_.

Not that their line of work was legal.

They both jumped back and started to pack their things from the roof. Sasuke packed the rifles as Naruto looked at their surroundings to see if there was even a single person who had seen them up here. Luckily they were high enough to not have been seen by anyone and by the looks of it no one had seen them up there.

“What the hell are we gonna do?” Naruto asked Sasuke as they made their way back inside.

“I don’t know about you. But I’m leaving the country and starting my retirement early.” He replied as they made their way back to their apartments.

“Take me with you!” she said as he unlocked the door, ignoring the stings of pain coming from her ankle and shoulder.

“No. Three years with you has made me mad enough. I don’t need any more time with you.” He replied entering the apartment without changing his shoes.

He was going to get lectured about this later. He just knew it but didn’t have time to think about it.

Naruto gasped. This wasn’t Sasuke. This was a traitor. Or a person in disguise as Sasuke. They had been neighbours for three years _and six months_. He dared to forget their anniversary, had they not been in a predicament Naruto would have said something about it. As it stood, she would have to do that later.

Just as Sasuke began pacing in the living area, Naruto said, “You do realize that the gun that was used was your own and the fingerprints on the bullet would prove to be yours, right?” she mentioned, genuinely concerned but she’d be damned before admitting it.

“I’ve made in a habit to wear gloves whenever loading bullets into my guns. So they be finding any fingerprints. Now shut up and let me think here.”

Screw thinking! They didn’t have time for that!

Naruto had exceptional hearing could hear police sirens.

“Not good. I can hear police.”

Sasuke turned to look at his neighbour, because he couldn’t hear any and was about to voice out his thoughts, however not long after that thought he could hear them. He would have to praise his neighbour for her hearing later on.

“Have you finished thinking yet?” Naruto asked shifting from one leg to another as she watched her neighbour carry on pacing.

“Nearly. Shut up.”

She did as she was told, but that didn’t help calm any of her nerves. Looking at the clock on the wall, she noticed that Sasuke had been thinking for roughly 3 minutes. Meaning it had been 7 minutes since they fled the roof. The police were most likely-

Sasuke interrupted his train of thought by finally saying, “Get dressed to blend in with the civilians.”


	5. Women

“Pull down your hood. You look like some sort of criminal like that.” Sasuke hissed.

_Ironic, coming from the guy in a dark jacket and black sunglasses._

They were both dressed and acting like nosy neighbours who wanted to know what all the commotion was about, when in reality they wanted to know what they would need to do.

“Worst case scenario, we attack some officers, take their uniforms, and tamper with evidence. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

 _Great, commit more crimes. Well I’m already an assassin, so I could just add it to my list of sins_. He thought humourlessly.

As they were walking they heard a voice that made them both freeze temporarily. “Sasuke? Naruto!” turning around they saw the other blonde who had the lower half of her hair dyed red, who was buying some sort of bread.

 _Ino. The gossiper._ They both groaned internally.

Sasuke grabbed Naruto by the elbow and started to drag him said, “Keep moving.”

“Well what’s this? The two of you, out together? Out on a date?” she asked once she reached them in a somewhat teasing voice.

“Business.” Naruto replied.

“And rather important business, so we should get going.” Sasuke added.

Internally both were wondering how the other knew the girl. Recent friend or long term friend?

“Well, in either case, if anyone saw you they’d have a field day and request having their eyes examined! Naruto and Sasuke in the same vicinity of each other and taking a stroll about town together, no less.”

“Yeah, really interesting Ino. We’ll see ya’ later ‘kay?” Sasuke paid no attention to what she was saying and carried on dragging Naruto. 

The blond thought it’d be a good idea to grab hold of his hand and whispered to him, “Cool it. Remind me which of us is the impulsive one?” before Sasuke could reply they saw some officers and both decided to run.

Two civillians, near a crime scene, running? Not suspicious one bit.

They left the blonde, standing there gaping at the two of them.

_Uchiha is just a sore loser who’s just jealous of my strength and strategizing! And the fact I have more friends than him!_

_Uzumaki is a blond headed idiot who chooses brawn over brain and talks way too much._

No one would have expected their top two assassins to have ever met, Naruto working at nights and Sasuke working in the day.

 

 

 

 

“How come the ambulance isn’t here? They should have come by now!”

“We wouldn’t have missed them.” _Wait a second,_ “Naruto look closer. What do you see on the floor of that apartment you shot at?” Sasuke relaxed slightly after getting a closer look at the blood around the body.

Squinting her eyes she tried to see what Sasuke was pointing at but with not so perfect vision was once again proving to be quite the problem. Ever since rooming with Sasuke she had been quite more _aware_ of her eye sight and she wasn’t happy about that. She hated thinking about it.

“I see a body on the ground and that’s it. I don’t have the best vision ya’ know.” She mumbled the last sentence and by the look Sasuke shot hwe, he had heard and was curious.

“Well… The body on the floor is very much a person. The blood around the person, is not. It’s paint. The scream was probably from someone nearby or even inside the apartment you shot through. But in the end, you didn’t kill anybody. The person feinted.”

At hearing the news Naruto physically relaxed and mentally noted to never again try sniping unless she was very far away from humanity. She didn’t want to end up really shooting a human this time round. However she doubted she would do it on her own volition.

Sighing Naruto decided to break through the invisible ice and said, “Why don’t we go out for breakfast? Ya’ know, since we’re already out and all, ‘tebayo.”

Quirking a brow and checking his watch Sasuke replied, “It’s 11:34AM. That makes it either an early lunch or brunch.”

Naruto blinked in response, clearly not caring about the technicality. She wanted food, and she would get it.

“How about the two of us race over to that new café a few blocks away and the loser pays.” There was a mischievous glint in Narutos eyes as she suggested the wager and Sasuke was not against the idea and had agreed. However he did allow the blond to have a thirty second head start considering her leg wound was likely to slow her down quite a bit.

They both had arrived at the café at the exact same time, neither quite out of breath but taking a few large breaths here and there.

Due to the unexpected tie they had decided to play a game of rock-paper-scissors to decide who should pay but that continuously, ended in ties as well.

To say the waitress wasn’t amused was an understatement. While she did find the whole thing to be quite adorable and amusing, after fifteen minutes she was getting impatient and hinted that they should just pay for each-others bills.

They both blinked upon seeing her, clearly they had forgot she was there, they both wore sheepish grins and agreed with her.

 

\-------------

 

Meanwhile both neighbours were completely unaware of the eyes that had been watching them throughout the whole thing and to say those eyes had been surprised was an understatement.

“And you wouldn’t believe my when I told you he went on a date with Naruto.” The blonde said.

Shikamaru groaned, “And just the other day we were talking about him dating someone just as dangerous as him. Naruto Uzumaki was not who I had pegged Sasukes secret lover to be.”

The two watched as the two they had been spying on left the café together and followed them, and saw them both enter, what seemed to be Narutos apartment as he had taken keys out of his pocket.

They both blinked and Ino was the one to break the silence, “What… do you think they’re doing-”

Shikamaru cut her off by saying, “I really, _really_ don’t want to know what my team leader in doing in that room, with his lover. Seriously. Especially since I have to see _both of them_ soon.”

 

 

 

 

At 6:34PM that evening Sasuke was laying down on his neighbours sofa. They had both had their dinner and after that Naruto took a shower.

Earlier when the two had returned from their brunch, they were quite smelly and sweaty so Naruto had called dibs on the shower first, even though it was Sasukes shower. She used the excuse that she didn’t get to have one in the morning and Sasuke had just grunted, letting the blond go in first.

“Saaaaasuke!” speak of the devil. Except here she didn’t appear. He did notice that the voice seemed to be a bit… frightened.

He decided to ignore his annoying neighbour for now, he really was in a foul mood.

“SASUKE! Seriously! I need help here!”

He continued to ignore her and turned the TV volume up. Somehow he knew they were going to get some complaints about noise tomorrow even though they were the only ones on this floor.

“Sasuke! I seriously need your help! AAAGH!” he heard a crash and ran into his apartment bathroom, gun in hand, only to see the curtain wrapped around a naked and wet Naruto.

Not that he could see Naruto, because he couldn’t. What he could see was that, whilst wet Naruto had much longer hair and her shoulders were quite thin.

Scowling he masked his nervousness with annoyance, which wasn’t all that fake, and said, “What do you want? I thought there was something here trying to kill you but apparently not.” He was about to turn and leave when Naruto started talking again and he stared at what the other was doing with his leg, which was very thin even for a female.

“Wait! There’s a- a huge ass spider over there!” she stuck her left leg out from the curtain and pointed to the wall across the bath tub and he saw a spider there. Sasuke had very sharp eyes and could see a small tattoo on his neighbours’ ankle but didn’t look long enough to tell what it was.

“And what do you want me to do about it?” he smirked, leaning against the door frame, enjoying his neighbours discomfort. They both knew he knew, but he was a sadistic bastard who wanted the gratification of hearing it from the blond.

“I want you to get rid of the fucking thing! Now!” she replied, quite annoyed about the whole thing.

Rolling his eyes he left to get a cup and paper to get rid of the spider, he opted out for teasing Naruto any longer. The female seemed to be quite agitated about the whole thing.

He came back into the bathroom to ask if Naruto wanted anything else and the blond had said she did. Waiting a bit for a continuation he was quite shocked to hear what his neighbour had to say. “I need- could you- um I mean-”, he took a deep breath before continuing, “-Could you please get me one of your shirts to wear? None of my other shirts are clean. I was going to wash them all today but I didn’t get the chance.”

Sasuke blinked a few times before flicking a finger through his ear and asked for Naruto to repeat what he had said. Nope, he had heard correctly.

It took a lot of self-control on Sasukes part not become quite as red as a tomato, like how Naruto currently looked.

He walked into his room and grabbed a shirt he was sure would fit the blond and wordlessly passed the shirt over to her.

Soundlessly he re-entered the living are of Narutos’ apartment and sat on the sofa, playing the show he had been ‘watching’. In all honesty he wasn’t paying an ounce of attention to it.

All he could think about was what had happened at work yesterday. He felt a need to apologize for the actions of his team. He also needed to talk to them all. He may not like Uzumaki but rules were rules and he had been team captain at the time, meaning they should have followed his orders to a T like they did with him.

Sasuke blinked when he saw a wet and barely dressed blond in front of him.

Naruto.

She was wearing Sasukes black shirt that had his family’s crest on the back and a pair of black shorts. She was also wet.

Very wet.

The shirt itself seemed to be quite big on the other, to be exact on the shoulders and kept making the shirt fall down giving him a clear view of her bare shoulder and another tattoo that he hadn’t know the other had.

Naruto decided to sit next to Sasuke on the sofa with one leg down and one braced upwards as he dried out his hair.

Sasuke didn’t wish to voice any of the thoughts going through his mind and if he didn’t say something, _anything_ , he would be having very, _very_ , naughty thoughts that would go be very out of control.

“What are your tattoos of? You know the ones on your shoulder and ankle.” He asked, they seemed like an okay topic to bring up.

Naruto froze and slowly looked up at Sasuke before replying. “The one on my shoulder goes onto my back is… Basically a nine tailed fox. The one on my ankle is one that all workers have to have. It’s- just a swirl that had a stick pointing out really.” She shrugged and went back to drying her hair. “Do you have any?”

Sasuke paused before answering, “I have two like you. One on my ankle, similar to yours really but there’s no stick. It’s just a line going down that opens into a swirl. The other is on my shoulder and back, like yours, except it a sort of red and black fire with three tomoe in a circle of sorts.”

There was a silence that was taken in two different ways. Sasuke thought it was an awkward silence and Naruto thought it was no different from the silence they had had previously yet again her mouth didn’t agree with her.

“You have a nice smell.” The moment the words were out of her mouth she turned beat-root red and Sasuke didn’t look much better. Dropping the towel she started waving her hands in front of him franticly, “I- I didn’t mean it like that! I meant- well –your- your shirt! It has a nice smell and all! And it’s really soft! Like a blanket! B-But, I didn’t mean the smell comment in a creepy way or anything!”

She was a bundle of nerves and stutters. Her colour didn’t seem to want to go and right now she was sure she was acting in a way that would have put one of his friend’s to shame. Hinata. She was always blushing slightly but as soon as someone talks to her she completely turned red and no matter if she was talking to strangers, friends or family, she always stuttered.

Sasuke was having the same train of thought, comparing Naruto to the blushing dark haired night afternoon/evening assassin that never seemed to change, despite how many years he’d known the woman, Hinata Hyuuga.

Instead Sasuke raised an eye brow and said he could keep the shirt if he wanted. It wasn’t like Sasuke didn’t have many of the exact same shirt anyway.

He closed his eyes for one moment and the next he could feel warm breath near his face so he opened his eyes to see Naruto in front of him.

Sasuke blinked as Naruto put a hand to his face and asked, “Do you have a fever? You’re all red and warm.” she mumbled the last part as she put a hand to her own forehead and noted the slight difference between them.

She removed her hands but kept her face near Sasukes. The dark haired male prayed no one would walk in to see this.

However, luck was not on his side as his god mother chose that exact moment to enter.

He didn’t notice her at first, she came in mumbled about something however it was her shriek that he noticed. Turning both of their faces they looked at the red face of their blond haired landlady. The shade of blond was a lot duller than Narutos but then again she did have unnaturally shocking blond hair.

“I- I- wha- what are you- I mean- what the hell- his- you- k-kiss-!” she yelled yet stuttered at the two of them pointing a finger that kept going between the two males.  

Naruto who seemed to be quite calm in the current situation, despite the fact that Sasuke was usually the calm one and Naruto the not-so-calm one, said whilst having a mischievous glint in his eyes, “What is it? Can’t take the sight of two people about to make out granny? Well no need to worry about that! We weren’t gonna. At least not with you here. No I was just checking to see if Sasuke had a fever and it seems that my lovely workaholic roomy here has got one just because he didn’t go work and has been brooding all day about said fact.” She continued to tease the lady as she gripped Sasuke’s head and placed it between her breasts, causing him to blush further but did not move.  

Sasuke ignored the granny comment. Everyone in the building called Tsunade different things. Aunty, granny, sister. The endearments varied and she didn’t mind.

If at all possible Tsunade’s face went even redder and the blush went even further down to her neck. She continued to mumble and stutter out sentences neither of them could make out.

Sasuke decided to have a little fun with the current situation and placed his left arm around Naruto’s waist and said, “Can you get on with whatever it is you came here for aunty. We’d like to get back to what we were doing.” To add affect he shifted Naruto even closer so she was sat with her legs either side of his own.

Sasuke knew he’d regret doing this later but for now, consequences be damned. He never gets to annoy his godmother so it’d be a nice change.

Tsunade closed her eyes and took a deep breath but when she spoke she did, her eyes remained closed. “There was a shooting earlier today not far from here. No one was hurt but everyone has to be made aware. I know the both of you can look after yourselves but still, be extra vigilant. Especially you Naruto, since you work at night. That’s all I had to say.” Despite her bravado she was still red but not quite as much. She turned around then opened her eyes to leave the apartment without another word.

Both meighbours remained still for a minute before both of them started laughing. Stomach clenching laughing. Sasuke lost his composure and they both tumbled off the sofa, Naruto on the ground and Sasuke on top braced on his arms.

The laughter died out after that but the smiles remained, and once again their face turned pink from the close proximity. Sasuke was the one to break the quite, “That was… fun. I don’t normally get to tease aunty like this. She’s fine seeing couples usually, but if they’re a couple she didn’t expect or they’re doing too much PDA, she goes as red as an apple.” They both chuckled.

Sasuke got up and helped Naruto up as well who hadn’t completely finished laughing. They both sat next to each other again when Naruto spoke up, “Granny has always had a mean streak so this was the perfect revenge. I used to prank people all the time in school.”

Raising a brow Sasuke asked teasingly, “And why’s that? Teenage rebellion?”

Naruto was quite for a moment and hugged his legs to his chest and replied, “Not really. I stopped pranking quite a bit as a teenager. I pranked mostly when I was younger to get people attention. My parents were killed when I was six so my godfather raised me and my aunt together. My aunts just a few years older than me. But he was always working and adults around me didn’t have much time to spare when they all had their lives to get to. So to get attention I pulled pranks all the time. I guess not having had many friends was another point. But when we moved I changed schools and had a lot of new friends and now we all work together, sort of. But I still pulled pranks just not as much. I guess I kinda matured out of it as well. Ha-ha.” She got nervous towards the end, not meaning to say quite as much as she had.

Sasuke sat dumbfounded about what he had heard. Naruto was always bright and cheerful and often reminded him of the sun. Heck, his apartment was bright colours and the blond hardly ever closed the blinds nor curtain, the exception being the bedroom at night.

It was that moment Sasuke noticed that he didn’t know anything about his neighbour. He didn’t know about her family, school, friends or personal life and for some reason that bothered him. They had lived next door to each other for just over three years, and knew a lot about her personality and habits but nothing else. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he shouldn’t think he needed to know any more than that. The life of an assassin is dangerous and anyone close to you is always in danger as well.

Little did Sasuke know that Naruto was having the exact same thoughts however he was going to voice these things out loud until Sasuke started to speak, “My parents were killed as well. But I was seven when that happened so my godmother raised me. Not really much else to say. I grew up relatively normally, a bit like you but I chose not to have any friends. But the people I went to school with work with me and we all get along just fine.” He didn’t know what to say. He was never the type to open up to people. His teammates would never get this much out of him yet he knew what he had said wasn’t very much. He didn’t say anything about his brother and before he could rectify Naruto decided to make himself comfortable on his lap.

Looking down a mop of blond hair was scattered around his lap and piercing blue eyes started into his own dark ones. “I won’t say I’m sorry about your loss because I know how irritating it is to hear it, especially from people that never knew them. So instead I will say, I wish they were here to see how much of a workaholic their son is. I didn’t know them but if they were anything like you, then they were good people.”

Unconsciously Sasukes hands started to run through Narutos hair and the blond started to relax.  Neither having realized she was tense to begin with.

After a few minutes of calm silence Sasuke was about to speak when his phone started to ring and he froze by the ring tone.

Itachi.

Turning his head round he saw he left it in the kitchen, he wasn’t sure how it got there since he was sure he hadn’t gone near there today. Getting up he replaced his lap for a pillow when he noticed Naruto was starting to fall asleep and made his way to get his phone.

Picking it up the phone he answered and spoke quietly, “Big brother? What’s up?” Naruto had raised her head from the pillow to look at Sasuke instead with an eyebrow raised, eyes squinted for having her short nap ruined.

“Nothing much Sasuke. You took your own sweet time getting the phone. Was it not next to you or were you _busy_.”

Sasuke never knew why his brother was so obsessed with his personal life.

“No. I didn’t have any work today so of course I’m not busy.”

“Hmm so you’re free, just as I had expected.” He muttered more to himself before saying a bit louder, “Well aunty rang me earlier but I could hardly make out her words but I heard your name there a few times so I decided to come over. Right now I am outside your apartment complex, with food and-”

Sasuke did the only things he could think of.

He hung up.

 


	6. Big brother

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> someone pointed out a mistake on my part so I went back and fixed it. that does not mean I have edited this chapter sadly. I'll get to that some day, but I'm too lazy to go through all of it.

**H** anging up the phone Sasukes mind went over what he would have to do. Itachi was just outside the complex it’d take him 17 seconds to get inside to the elevator, fifteen seconds to get past security, six seconds for the elevators doors to open and-

“Hey! Sasuke! What’s up man? On second you’re-”

“No time to explain. Right now we have five minutes twenty seconds to clean up the remaining debris in my apartment and close up the hole.” With that said Sasuke walked over to where they had left the cleaning supplies and threw a dust-pan and brush at Naruto, signalling to be quick about it.

“What? Four minutes? To close up the wall? You’re crazy.”

“We can just use my bed sheets or pare curtains, something! My brother is coming over in less than five minutes and he very, very intimidating. If you think I’m scary, wait till you meet the guy I looked up to.”

Wait Sasuke had a brother? Naruto didn’t know that. Wait, she did. She just forgot about it since he was currently in bed with her aunt. Actually she didn’t know anything about her neighbour besides his home habits.

Shaking her head she quickly got to work removing the remaining debris around the few places she and Sasuke had missed, such as the bookshelf.

As soon as it was clean Sasuke came in with his curtains, nails and a hammer.

“You were serious about using a curtain.”

“It’s the same size of the hole in the wall. I’ll just tell him some half assed lie.”

He got two chairs, getting Naruto to stand on one whilst he held it up. A minute later they wall was covered with two dark curtains. It actually looked to be the same shade as the wall anyway.

Sasukes whole place was dark, the exact opposite to Naruto’s apartment. Hers was brightly painted ad the curtains were open nearly all day.

Before Sasuke could get Naruto to go into her side of the apartment Sasukes front door opened and a loud voice said, “Little brother, I’m coming in!”

“Shit.” He muttered. “Hide.” He turned around and faced his brother who was taking off his coat and shoes whilst Naruto went to hide in Sasukes storage room.

“Baby brother! I’m here!” sang Itachi as he walked into the living area.

“There’s no point in saying you’re coming in, Itachi, if you’re already in.”

“Ooh someone’s a little cranky. Is it because my little brother didn’t get to go work today?” Itachi ruffles Sasukes’ hair and went to the coffee table and put the food there, “Well tough, even the night shift has been cancelled today so stop whining. Anyway, I’ve brought you some food from the local convenience store and a pizza from the shop down the road if you don’t want that. Oh, and I brought some of those vegetables you leave at my house to rot.” Itachi let out a deep sigh, “I don’t know why you have a fetish for that sort of thing, but oh well.” With that he sat down, taking a quick look around the place.

“I do not have a fetish!” yelled Sasuke, Itachi always knew how to grate on his nerves.

“Ah-ha. Sit down and eat already. I’d like to hear all about this busty blonde Tsunade seems to think you’re shacking it up with.” Itachi raised a brow as he folded a leg over the other, arm perched across the sofa.

“Auntie’s misinformed. I’m not sleeping with my neighbour. I’m _torturing_ her with my neighbour. She just waltzed in here without permission. I felt the need to remind her why that’s rude.” He replied as she saw Naruto discreetly open a crack of the door to have a look at his brother.

He sat down on his armchair as his brother spoke up, “And who might this busty blonde exactly? Last I heard, you were still highly infatuated with your neighbour… oh what’s the term? ... Ah yea, neighbour-sexual. In fact, I’m sure you secretly eloped with her, if you did, I demand a redo of your wedding.”

Sasuke blinked at his brother’s question, not hearing word but not understandings them very well, “I am not neighbour-sexual, and whatever that is. Is that even a thing? And where the hell did me marrying her come from?”

“You could have fooled me. All I’ve heard from you about your personal life is how your neighbour watches what you do, sings in a nice voice, how you fell asleep to her singing one of your favourite, how the two of you watch the same TV shows most of the time, so on and so forth.” He paused looking Sasuke directly in the eye before saying, “You’re not secretly married to her are you, little brother? I don’t mind if you are, really I just wasn’t to witness it is all.”

Sasuke just stared blankly at his older brother before saying, “Well now that you’ve dropped off some food, why don’t you head off home-” Sasuke said as he picked his brother off the sofa and tried to get him to leave but his brother interrupted him.

“Sasuke. Why is your curtain nailed into the wall? Don’t tell me you and your neighbour do kinky shit like that through a window or something?” Asked Itachi as he was forced off the sofa, pointing a finger to the wall they had covered.

“… Where did you come up with that conclusion?” he pausing pushing his brother for a moment before continuing it up.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Silently Sasuke cursed, this was not what he had in mind when he told Naruto he would come up with a half assed lie. “If you must know… Naruto has had some break in’s recently so we agreed to have a window put there temporarily. Of course, peeking in either one will be hard since it’s been nailed in.”

“You’re lying. When you’re lying, you’re hiding something from me. Pray tell little brother, what might you be hiding from you’re only brother? Hmm?” he inched his face closer to Sasukes in order to fluster the young Uchiha and get him to unintentionally start talking.

“Why would I hide anything? I have nothing to hide-”

“Whoever is behind that door come out now, or I _will_ shoot you.”

Sasuke cursed. One, because Itachi had noticed someone was there and two because Naruto being the idiot she was, especially after the warning Sasuke had given about his brother, she would come out. After a few seconds passed he could feel Naruto’s will slowly begin to leak out of her, “Don’t-” he meant it towards Naruto but he continued, “-point a fucking gun in my house Itachi.”

Pausing a moment Itachi sighed and put his gun in his holster under his suit, “Well then. I’m going to the bathroom.” With that he went to the bathroom, not fully closing the door behind him, but neither neighbour noticed that.

“Quickly. Go back to your side. Before he gets out.” Sasuke whispered to Naruto

There was one thing they hadn’t counted on though. Sasuke has laminated floor, like Naruto’s, but Naruto was only wearing socks and no shoes or sandals.

She slipped and landed on her back, hitting the back of her head so hard she swore she got a concussion.

 _Maybe faking sleeping would be the wiser course of action here_ , so that’s just what she did. Making her breathing low and shutting her eyes she feigned sleep.

“Hey. You alive?” Sasuke said as he started to poke Naruto in the face, “If you’re dead I’m not burying you, remember?”

Opening her eyes she said in a hoarse voice, “Bastard. If I- really am going to- die. There’s something- I’ve been meaning to- tell you.” She said between pauses, “I think- you look hot- when you’re firing- your gun.”

That was quite the confession his neighbour had said to him. Damn Naruto for making this moment more serious than it actually was. “Is that so?” he replied looking Naruto in the eye.

 

\------------

 

Itachi, who was standing in the bathroom doorway, didn’t know what to do. He felt very out of place watching this, what seemed to be, moment of…intense eye fucking. “Care to introduce us?” his hand was on his gun, so if needs be he could shoot the woman on his brothers floor.

To both brothers surprise it was Naruto who got up and answered, “I’m Naruto Uzumi. Sasukes next door neighbour. _Just_ his neighbour”

Looking at Naruto he examined her, shoulder length blond hair, striking blue eyes and three whisker like scars running across both her cheeks. Everything about her screamed familiar. Itachi would have to rake through his brain later to figure out where he had seen this person.

He reached his right hand out for her to shake which she did, “Itachi Uch-”

“Uchiage. Itachi Uchiage. My older brother.” Sasuke finished, looking pointedly at his older brother.

Good, Sasuke was being cautious of his identity. This ensured Sasuke’s safety as well as Naruto’s.

“Oh and Itachi… the next time you have sex with my aunt, I will have to ask you to leave some sort of sign saying that. You’re both loud and tend not to care where you go at it.” With that said she decided to feign sleep again and dropped himself backwards.

As Naruto was dropping, Sasuke stretched out his arm, cushioned her fall as to not further injure herself. At this, Itachi raised his eyebrow.

 _How very… kind and chivalrous of him_. Thought Itachi. It was then that Itachi saw the mark on her ankle, the same marking that every member of the night shift was mandated to have on them.

This girl worked for the company. He would have to go through the files and perhaps even ask Inaho as to who this young female in front of him was. It was then what she had said sunk in. she was Inaho’s niece… he had been under the impression she only had a nephew… who had the same first name.

Naruto Uzumaki was crossdressing as a male. Now all he needed to do was finf out why.

Sasuke closed his eyes and reopened them before he said, “She’s just my neighbour. She asked me to get some stuff for her since she’s hurt and I forgot to give them to her, and she came to collect them.”

Itachi looked closely at the two of them finally noticing the pinkish marks on Sasukes’ neck and smirked before saying, “Oh. Then why is there an orange toothbrush next to your own dark blue one? Another hamper in your bathroom? And as a cherry on top, she’s wearing one of your shirts.”

Sasuke cursed. How could he be so careless? Itachi was the most perceptive person he knew, with the best eyesight of any other assassin he had ever met. Of course he would notice those extra things in his bathroom and his clothes on someone else. Now how to get out of this situation?

“Is that why you needed to wash your sheets, baby brother? Rough night?” There was an unusual glint in his eyes that Sasuke had seen whenever his brother wanted to cause a bout of mischief, which was never good for him.

Again Sasuke cursed his brother’s perceptiveness. He hadn’t even noticed that his brother had gone into his bedroom let alone noticed that he had washed his sheets the previous day.

His brother wasn’t wrong exactly, but the type of rough night both brothers had in mind were entirely different. Sasukes type of rough night was, in fact, having Naruto sleep in the bed with him, constantly using his chest as a pillow and squeezing him closer. Naruto even, somehow, straddled him at one point and decided to choke him. That was his limit, he somehow managed to wake the blonde up whose face went beat red and she ran to sleep on the sofa instead. He ended up feeling bad and picked her, carrying her back to bed, in the morning he told Naruto she must have dreamed the whole thing up.

So yes, he had had a rough night. But there was no way in hell he was telling his brother the truth so instead and let out a deep sigh and just when he was about to speak Naruto spoke up again, “If you’re planning on social suicide…just don’t… drag me with you… I’ve still… got things I need to do… family related stuff.”

Looking into his eyes he let out another sigh before saying, “Yes. A rough night indeed.”

That was not the reply Itachi was looking for. Looking between the two neighbours on the ground, then back at the marks on Sasukes neck before saying, “Well. Lord have mercy upon my soul for my eyes hath been tainted. I must now cleanse them with holy water lest I be tainted too, and my perfect vision be gone by dusk” With that Itachi got his coat and before closing the door he said, “Goodnight kids!” with that he closed the door.

 

\----------------

 

After what felt like forever, “Your brother is… how should I put it? An odd one? No that’s not it, though he is odd. Hmm maybe…” As Naruto was rambling on all Sasuke could think about was what his brother had misunderstood and what the outcome would be.

Itachi was overprotective and that in itself caused a lot of problems for him, so now that his brother thinks he’s screwing his neighbour… he could feel the headache coming so he stopped his train of thought.

“Don’t mind my brother. As long as he doesn’t catch on about the missing wall, everything will be fine. Anyway, how’s your back? Do you want me to check it for you?” he said as he raised his hand to lift up Narutos’ shirt but she raised her hands up.

As she did so she stubbornly said, “No thanks. I’m good. It hardly hurt.”

Sasuke gave him a confused look in reply. All he wanted to do was to check if his neighbour was okay. After all, the other night she had gotten injured at work, a cat had bitten him the day before that and now she had fallen backwards and most likely had a concussion.

Well, Sasuke could be stubborn as well. He leaned forward and got straight in Narutos’ face and said, “You know… when you say no to me… it gets on my nerves.” With that he grabbed the hem of his neighbours’ shirt and started to tickle her.

It was then that he noticed a very important thing. Naruto had left the bathroom only a short while ago… with no bra on. It explained why she didn’t want him to check her.

Disregarding that, he continued to raise her shirt, one hand to her back which was in front of him and the other hand slowly going up her stomach till it reached the lapses of her breasts, causing her to gasp and get up, swaying ever so slightly as she made her way out. 

“Hey! Naruto wait!” he raised his hand to stop Naruto but she was already gone.

Damn she moved fast. “Well great job Sasuke. You have successfully freaked out your neighbour. Well done.” He said to himself sarcastically. As if Itachi saying he might be neighbour sexual wasn’t enough, he may just have proven he was. “Fuck. I’m an idiot.”

 

\---------------

 

Naruto held back her fury she was feeling. Sasuke, the bastard, had tried to feel her up.

The next time he tried that without her permission first, she was going to kick him in the nuts.

Sighing she picked up her phone, deciding she needed to know whether or not she could go and kill someone tonight, “Hey Sakura… Do you know if I’m in tonight or not?” she asked as soon as the pinkette answered.

“Oh, Naruto. I was just about to ring you as well. No. nobody was allowed into work today since there was a lot of cases of staff being followed. Inaho and the others are trying to figure out things like a pattern and stuff like that.”

Naruto held back her disappointment as she replied, “Okay. Thankyou. I’ll see you when I see you then.” She then hung up, not allowing time for Sakura to ask about Ino had told her earlier. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a very short chapter I know but it seemed like the right place to stop. I'm nearly done with the next chapter so I should have that out within the next few day.
> 
> Funny story, I was writing chapter 7 thinking it was the one that needed updating when I went and checked and apparently chapter 5 was the last one I updated… my brain clearly hasn't been functioning properly lately.
> 
> Also, if you haven't already, check out my other stories. Each one has a different pairing except one which I have left as an undecided pair. The only difference is they all set place in the actual Naruto world.
> 
> Well, see you soon!


	7. Aftermath

That night Naruto had stayed awake watching some movies as she avoided Sasuke, causing him some degree of concern and annoyance. Concern for her as the sofa wasn’t very comfy to sleep on all night and annoyance because of his idiocy.

He had simply been concerned at the time and the two of them hadn’t been closed off when it came to touching each other since Naruto seemed to be very… carefree when it came to him.

He had taken her off the sofa and placed her on the bed, taking over her place on the sofa and when he woke up breakfast had been made and there was no Naruto in sight. There was a note saying Shisui had called her over to get advice on what he should wear and do for his date. Who planned a date on Saturday morning was beyond his comprehension.

After that she was going to have lunch meeting with her aunt and a co-worker, meaning she wouldn’t be home till mid or late afternoon. Giving him plenty of time to strategize his ‘sorry’ plan.

His original plan correlated to him making dinner and getting her a small gift. It was then he realised she wasn’t a girl who liked jewellery as she mostly dressed as a boy.

He was almost certain the only jewellery she owned was the silver ring on her middle finger of her right hand and the blue crystal necklace that she wore. Both could be worn by males and females and couldn’t arouse any suspicion.

He had taken a quick scan around the room and had seen she any jewellery and had seen she owned similar jewellery to the ones she wore, each had a carving on it that rang bells in his mind yet he couldn’t place where he had seen them.

He had decided against cooking, he would most likely embarrass himself when he compared his cooking to Naruto’s. Instead he would go and bring home lots of ramen from her favourite place and make simple onigiri himself.

He had a vague idea what he should get her and as he stared at his laptop, an idea came to mind.

 

\--------------------

 

Naruto had been very nervous the entirety of the day after she had left the apartment. She was dressed as a guy with her hair tied up and her trusty weapons hidden yet easily assessable to herself.

She had the distinct feeling she was being watched yet a simple look through her selfie mode had proved otherwise.

Once she got inside she finally allow her walls to drop. Shisui was an Uchiha, but he was a friend and co-worker, trustworthy like Obito.

She left her things on the coat rack and made her way through the apartment into Shisui’s open bedroom only to see it was a mess.

His clothes were scattered across the floor, bed and desk, causing her to blink before she spoke, “Shisui… I dress as a girl and a guy and I can safely say you have more clothes than I do. I think you might have the same amount as Sasuke does in fact.”

She sat down on the rolling chair behind his desk as he came out of his walk in closet, wearing a white button up shirt and dark grey trousers.

“What do you think? Yes, no?” he gave her a twirl causing her to sigh and mentally judge what type of friends she had.

She pointed to a navy blue button up and the black trousers next to it that had been scattered. “Go change into these two.”

He went and did as she said, so once he came out she undid the first three buttons, rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and told him ruffles his already messy hair, giving it an organised bed head look.

Once he looked at his reflection he gave her a large squeeze, thanking her over and over for the simple yet date like look. Once he let go she went around the desk looking for something and decided he kept it in his wardrobe and found what she had been looking for. She gave him his old necklace, a guitar pick that had the Uchiha fan on one side and the name of the band he and his friends had been a part of during high-school.

The two had left not long after, Naruto going for lunch with her aunt whereas Shisui went to his business meeting and date.

Once she arrived at the designated place she was greeted by Gaara, Temari and Konkuro, her aunt had been waiting upstairs for them in the restaurant.

The meeting had been a simple affair. The company had worked out that the people being targeted were from clans who came from Japan originally, which honestly made up quite a large percentage of the company.

When her aunt had named a few people who had been attacked caused her to give her suggestion which would narrow down the list; each one had the blood of the nine clans. They called themselves that, yet outsiders were also taken into these clans. Each member had an ancestor somewhere along the line that had something to do with the nine tailed beasts.

The siblings had gone shortly after, leaving her with her aunt, in a situation which she didn’t want to happen.

“So…” Inaho sipped her tea, dragging out what she wanted to say, causing Naruto to slightly squirm in her seat, knowing where her aunt was going to go. “Aunty tells me that she walked in on you and your neighbour about to get frisky.”

She looked Naruto in the eye as she said that, causing the younger blonde to squirm, “We weren’t doing anything. Granny just so happened to have bad timing when she walked in on me checking his temperature. Since she decided to be rude and not knock before she came in, the two of us just decided to tease her.”

Inaho placed her cup in its saucer as she linked her finger together, taking a pose she often called the sandaime pose. “And why didn’t you tell me that your neighbour knew you were a girl?” at the question Naruto knew she was screwed.

She had been told to inform her aunt whenever someone found out she was a girl or found out who she was, yet she hadn’t done that.

Yet she refused to allow her aunt to make her feel like a child again, “I didn’t feel the need to tell you when he’s clean. I didn’t want to keep binding my chest around him for no good reason. I get to be the girl I never got to be as a child whilst I’m at home-”

“And if someone other than aunty came in and saw the two of you? Your safety is my main concern Naruto. You are the only family I have left, I want you safe…” she dragged a hand through her albino hair as she looked down. Sighing she placed her head in her hand and spoke, “The Company will be closed till further notice, for at least a week. Take a vacation, or something but be on prepared for video meetings and phone calls. And be prepared to have a meeting with Uchiha when you get back. He messaged me saying he wanted to formerly apologise to you for his team’s insubordination the other night.”

The rest of their conversation was a civil one and they finished talking just after 4:30PM, leaving Naruto to go home.

She had decided she wasn’t going to ignore Sasuke anymore. He hadn’t meant to feel her up and was simply concerned for her. She was sure having ignored him for some time had taught him a lesson to not do so again.

 

\------------------

 

In the end their weekend had been, in a nutshell, awkward.

Sasuke trying to talk to Naruto normally, and Naruto trying to avoid him like the plague.

What Sasuke didn’t know was why.

When Naruto had come home from dinner with her aunt she had been fine around him. However, the next morning when Sasuke woke up around 9 AM he couldn’t feel nor see any sign of Naruto in the apartment.

He had been in a panic, thoughts running wild, thinking someone had snuck into their apartment- no Narutos apartment- and kidnapped her whilst the elder slept.

He hadn’t calmed down until he noticed a few notes, each saying the same thing, most likely so he at least found one of them. Each one saying she had gone out with some friends and would be back to make lunch for him, but then was needed to go out again after that.

Naruto had, in fact, been true to the fact that she was meeting up with friends. However she had been the one to invite them out last minute in order to get some space between the two of them. Mostly because her aunt had rang Saturday evening stating she would come in at any time she pleased so she had best not be up to anything.

When she told Sasuke, he hadn’t believed a single word coming out of the blond.

So on Monday he had been so distracted he hadn’t noticed any of the hush whispers around the building that were about him. He only noticed them when Shikamaru came and sat next to him a quarter way into their lunch break and started a conversation which was very odd for the lazy sniper.

“So, since you’ve had your head in the gutter all morning and have been glaring holes into your phone for the same duration, I’m guessing that you haven’t heard the rumours going around?”

Turning his face round to face the other male he replied in a rather bored and detached voice, “What rumours?”

Taking a sip of his coffee he replied, “That you are currently in a relationship with a distinctly, specific blond. Don’t give me that look.” Sasuke was currently giving him his trademark ‘ _shut the hell up_ ’ and ‘ _what the hell_ ’ look which Shikamaru was having none of. “First there’s you acting differently since Tuesday last week. Then there’s the phone call you received last Thursday that seemed to be very, _domestic_ and, _caring_ of you. Neither of which I have ever seen from you. And I’ve known you since we were since before we even started high school. Then on Friday, _your day off_ , you were seen, out, on what seemed like a lovely walk around the area you live in with a certain blond, when usually your day off is spent cuddling with your rifles.

“Ino told me she saw you with said blond on a date so we followed the two of you to his place. We know it was his and not yours. And to add to this pile, that same day, your brother goes to your place to have dinner alone with his only little brother, and what does he find? Your neighbour, in your apartment, wearing your clothes, with marks on both of your necks. Somehow almost everyone here knows about most of this as well.

“So what do you have to say for yourself?” Shikamaru had finally finished his speech, leaving Sasuke gob-smacked.

He didn’t know what to be more surprised about, the fact that everyone thought he was screwing his neighbour or the fact he had heard so much from Shikamarus own mouth, in one go, on his own volition. Or perhaps the fact that his brother had told someone about what he had seen at his apartment. He would have to make sure he didn’t tell Shikamaru that Naruto was a girl or they’d be in big trouble.

The on lookers of this conversation were greeted with the sight of a very flustered and confused sniper who was being interrogated by his oldest friend. They were also tuning their ears to hear this conversation better.

“No comment.” And Sasuke went back to eating but was once again interrupted by his old friend.

“Oh no. You’re not getting out of this one-”

“Just what the hell were you two doing spying on the two of us anyway? What I do in my personal time is just that. _Personal_.” Sasuke cut him off and started to glare at him.

He hated when people, even his oldest friend, got into his personal business.

Raising his hand in a defensive manner Shikamaru replied calmly, “I just thought you should know. I didn’t actually think you would give me a reply. Honestly, Ino wanted me to ask and wouldn’t stop pestering me about it and then tag-teamed with Tsunade. So I had to ask.” He shrugged and continued whilst taking another bite of his lunch, “But I thought you might want some help keeping your not-so-secret, secret, a secret.”

Nodding slowly Sasuke went back to his lunch as well before replying, “There’s nothing going on between us. But I do want him safe and out of harm’s way-”

“So that’s why you got one of our guys to watch over your apartments. But the guy can look after himself, ya’ know.”

“One, I thought nobody knew about that. And two, I know he is strong but he has a few injuries that make defending himself difficult - Why the hell am I telling you all this?”

Shikamaru just shrugged and took another bite of his food, hiding his knowing smirk that the class valedictorian wore when he knew something the other person didn’t.

Sasuke didn’t like that look what so ever.

And later, he would hate it even more.

 

\------------------

 

When Sasuke got home that afternoon he was shocked to notice that he didn’t go to his own door, but to Narutos- he also had a key to Narutos apartment that he wasn’t even aware that he had.

Slowly he unlocked the door and entered only to be greeted by the sight of his landlord scolding a very annoyed Naruto and his godmother slash landlady in the kitchen looking for what he didn’t know. Most likely something alcoholic.

“You need to be more careful gaki, you don’t want anyone to know your secret and that’s fine but you need to be on guard at all times-”

“Welcome home Sasuke! Did you have a nice day at work?” Naruto asked cheerfully as she turned to face him, but the look on her face was _‘help me’_.

Hanging his coat up, he replied, “Fine. What are you two doing here?” after taking off his shoes he entered the living area and sat down on the sofa when he saw the serious faces of both the elderly people in the room. Not that he would ever call them _elderly_ out loud in front of them.

Once both of them were in front of the two of them, one on the armchair and the other on the coffee table.

Before either neighbour could speak, Jiraiya spoke first. “Okay, I’ve done one of the things we came here to do already. The other thing we came here to do is because of your living arrangements. We gave you a week to choose whether or not you wanted to stay here Sasuke. If you choose to not stay, we have a place for you to stay at that is owned by the two of us and is almost the same as your apartment. So, what’s your verdict?”

“I’m staying.”

With a curt nod Jiraiya carried on, “Right. Another thing is, we have contacted everyone and anyone that can help to repair the wall and piping etcetera. And, well, that would take just over a month and a half. Will you two be okay for that long?” when he received a nod from both on the sofa he carried on, “Well, now that that’s done. Tsunade and I wanted both of you to come over for dinner. It’s been a while since the whole family has sat- actually, the family has _never_ all sat down together for dinner. We’ve even drag your aunt-” he nodded to Naruto, “-and your brother.” He nodded to Sasuke. “It’ll be this Saturday night. That way we’re not intruding on either one of your work lives.” Nodding to himself he looked over to Tsunade and the two of them rose up.

“Right, we’ll see you then, I’ll text you the time. Don’t be late. Okay?” Tsunade said with an overly sweet smile that generally means not to piss her off.

When both the boys nodded they left and it took a few minutes for the both of them to digest everything that had just happened before Sasuke muttered, “The whole family? Why the hell would…”

“Jiraiya is my grandfather as well as my godfather.” Naruto answered his unasked question.

Sasuke blinked. Once. Twice. “What?”

Rolling her eyes she repeated herself, “Jiraiya is my grandfather as well as my godfather. I have another godfather but I doubt you know him.”

“My godmother is married to your grandfather.” He said slowly. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around all this.”

Naruto muttered something under her breath but Sasuke wasn’t paying much attention to her.

She got up and asked, “What do you want for dinner ‘cause I’m not in the mood to cook dinner.”

Snapping himself back into reality he mentally berated himself for acting like a confused four year old. “Let’s order out then. Pizza or Japanese?” he asked getting up and stretching, putting what happened on hold for now.

“How about a bit of both?” Naruto replied. She was really in the mood for both since Sasuke mentioned them and by the look on his face, he knew what he was doing.

Nodding he went into his own apartment to get changed and relax himself.

When he got back in he was greeted by the sight of Naruto trying to change her bandages. Her shoulder wound seemed to have been getting better and since Naruto was getting on with everything quite normally, Sasuke didn’t think the blonde’s wound was as bad as it still was.

Once again, he mentally slapped himself. Naruto was only wounded a few days ago. Gunshot wounds don’t just go in a day.

Snapping back into reality he went over to Naruto and spoke, “I didn’t realize it was still bleeding. Do you want me to do that for you?” he sat right in front of the blonde on the coffee table where Jiraiya had been sitting just a short while ago.

“It had stopped, but I dropped something earlier because Mr. Creepy outside came inside whilst I was in the shower. So I punched him, and completely forgot about my shoulder and ended up opening it. So, I had two reasons for this bleeding shoulder. And right now it’s killing me. So, yeah. If you don’t mind givin’ us a hand. This time, that is.” By the end her face was a bright shade of pink.

He leaned forwards and helped to change the bandages, trying not to let his eyes wonder over the blonde with no shirt. Sadly, he failed and noticed another tattoo she hadn’t mentioned that he hadn’t previously questioned her on, but then he fully realized what Naruto had said. “I didn’t send anyone to guard the house whilst I was gone. And even if I did, they wouldn’t come into the apartment unless you got hurt or called for them.”

He had a frown on his face as he thought of the possibilities of who could have been outside the apartment when he remembered that over the weekend he had CCTV placed outside the doors of their apartments and could see just who it was.

“I had CCTV installed outside the doors of our apartments, with both Tsunade’s and Jiraiya’s permission of course, so we should be able to see who came here earlier today.” Nodding to himself he put on the new gauze and sat on the sofa next to Naruto on the sofa.

“When the hell did you get time to do that? I didn’t notice any.” The confused look on Narutos face was making it hard for Sasuke not to laugh.

“Over the weekend. You were avoiding me like the plague so I didn’t get a chance to tell you.”

“I was not avoiding you! I was avoiding my aunt!” the blonde paused before saying, in a more calm manner, “Apparently Ino blabbed that she had seen the two of us together on what seemed to be a date on Friday and she also stalked us home and saw us enter my apartment. Needless to say, my aunt was very concerned as to why she wasn’t informed of one of her only relative’s new ‘relationship’-” she inserted quotation marks, “- and she said she would barge in at any time. I told you this!” She shivered and Sasuke released a small chuckle at his expense earning him a fierce glare from his neighbour slash roommate.

“Yeah well it can’t be worse than my day. When Ino saw us on Friday she got one of my friends to come with her and stalk with her and he saw as well. When I came into work today, everyone knew but I was busy with work and didn’t notice that everyone was whispering about me and my so called relationship. So on my lunch break, said friend, decided to tell me what everyone was saying.

“Apparently the two of us have been in a relationship for three years and are currently _interested_ in getting married to one another. Another rumour was that you were pretending to be a male and are actually pregnant, but I don’t want anyone to know.

“Oh then there’s my personal favourite, the two of us were childhood sweethearts who hadn’t seen each other since we were kids and when we did, we hit it off and have been married for two and a half years, keeping our relationship a secret from Itachi but we had to tell him because we’re going to have twins in the next six months by our surrogate.”

He sighed deeply and the headache he could hardly feel earlier was making itself known. “I don’t know where the hell these people come up with these ideas. And don’t worry, no one has any solid evidence that you’re a girl. I rang my brother and he didn’t tell anyone.” He leaned all the way back and looked to the clock above the bookshelf and was surprised to see that it was it was past 6 o’clock already.

Naruto couldn’t help it, she laughed. Stomach clenching, rolling over and banging the floor, laughed and not long after Sasuke felt himself laughing as well, just not as much as Naruto was.

 

\-------------

TILL NEXT TIME!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am honestly surprised I have this chapter done the same day. But then again, it was nearly done in the first place so I shouldn't really be surprised.  
> Someone mentioned a couple of mistakes I had been making, plot-holes, so I went to the previous chapter and fixed them. Please do go back and read them.  
> Till next time!


	8. Lunch

 

 

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"There's nothing wrong with me but lots wrong with you!"

"That's rich coming from an idiotic, pink haired, fangirl!"

"Who the hell do you think you're calling an idiotic fangirl?! And what does my hair colour have to do with anything?!"

"You're the idiot! And your hair is an ugly colour!"

"I'll have you I graduated third in the school after Shikamaru and Sasuke! And my hair colour is way better than your yellow haired one!"

"Like hell it is! And we all know you always stalk Sasuke!"

"You're the one who stalks him! I happen to be in a relationship with someone else! And we were classmates with common friends, so of course I was near him! You're just jealous that I get noticed by your beloved whilst you get called a nuisance!"

A gasp was emanated from the pink haired girl right before she started crying.

Sakura and Ino were arguing about who knows what and nobody cared enough to question it, and none dared to stop them. They may all be assassin and friends, but those two females specialized in fist fighting and other hand-to-hand combats.

However Naruto Uzumaki was always a force to be reckoned with. But when she's in a bad mood, you want to do everything in your power to not get her mad.

Clearly both of those girls forgot how sadistic the cheerful blonde could really be.

"Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka! I suggest the two of you shut your traps up or I'll show you just what my sabre does exactly. I am in no mood to deal with either of you and I am repressing the urge to stab the two of you." She glared at the two girls as they both paled considerably and, wisely, stayed quiet. Letting out an annoyed breath he asked for everyone's reports.

It was Ino who spoke up first, "Well, everything seemed normal. Keyword seemed. It was far too… domestic and homely that it made me wanna vomit. Previously, the couple were never like that and I believe they were tipped off that someone was tailing them, hence the sudden change I behaviour. Heck, even the girlfriend was surprised by his behaviour."

Naruto nodded towards her and gave her reply, "Good. Keep eyes, and if possible ears, on him at all possible times. So far you've done a great job so keep it up and we'll know everything there is to know. Just don't forget to email this report to the day workers so they're on top of this as well."

Ino left with a curt nod before Sai spoke up, "My target that I have been tailing alongside day workers had been assassinated. We had originally planned on waiting a few more days, however he had a friend with him that somehow must have spotted me so I had to kill them both. The other male was a wanted man on our list as well, so I ended up killing two wanted people." He shrugged like it was no big deal and Naruto gave a nod.

A universal message that all males understood that he was trusted to get on with everything smoothly.

Last but not least, he looked towards Sakura who refused to make eye contact before finally looking up with determined eyes and spoke clearly to her team leader, "My mission was a success. I had to… infiltrate the Moreno family and gain information on their people's locations and their bases locations. I had a recorder on me at the time and will write up all of them immediately and send it to all required heads."

She once again nodded his head before replying, "Make sure that's done here and not at home. We don't want you getting attacked on the way home because of that information."

With that she turned around to sit at her desk before checking the time on her phone. 3:24 AM. Just a little longer left.

She got up to go the bathroom and as she came back her phone was ringing and there was a small crowd around it.

Raising a brow she cleared her cough before Ino handed her the phone with a twinkle in her eyes. "It's Sasuke."

On the outside she was calm and collected however internally she was going through all the curse words she could think of before answering in a confused voice. "Sasuke? Aren't you meant to be in bed?"

She heard a sneeze before the male on the other side of the line replied, "I just woke up and can't sleep. Talk to me and I'll be able to sleep. Your voice is so very boring after all." He said in a teasing voice.

"Ha-ha-ha. Note the enthusiasm in my voice. Do you have a cold? You should seriously be sleeping." She sat down and waved for everyone to continue their work and gave a fierce glare to make sure they did.

"I can't seem to sleep properly without you next to me recently. Most likely because you've conditioned my body to be used to either your scent or heat."

Naruto blinked, that was awfully honest of him, "Well if you need my scent, you are sleeping in my bed. In my room, where I keep my clothes. As for my body heat… you'll have to do without it for a bit longer. I could leave early if it's really bothering you. I'm not allowed to do much anyway. Not with my injuries." She leaned back in his chair and started to go round on it in circles, not noticing the slight smile on her face, however everyone around him sure as hell did.

"I will not condone a person leaving work early for no good reason." Sasuke was laying down on his back facing the ceiling with one hand behind his head. He really did want the blonde here, he missed the body heat that emitted from her.

"I will have you know that the company I work for does not have shift timings. Merely come in whenever you're needed, leave whenever you're done, just making sure your works done." She shrugged her shoulder and stifled a yawn.

"Oh wait and another thing. We hardly sleep together in that bed, now do we?" she asked in a teasing voice with a small smirk on her face. However that smirk vanished when she realized just how everyone would perceive that sentence, and internally groaned.

"No we don't. I usually sleep whilst you go to work, but those few days you were sleeping next to me seemed to be enough to condition me. How troublesome." He muttered the last part but Naruto had heard him and emitted a light hearted chuckle.

"Sleeping together just twice could have that effect, never mind the amount of times you're in my bed with me. Just… let me wrap things up here and I'll be home in about 45 minutes. Okay?" she started to gather the papers on her desk together into two piles.

"Hn. What are you doing now?" she shifted the phone onto her shoulder as she organised her desk.

"Wow. Sleepy you is a very talkative you. I don't think we have had a conversation this long, not whilst it's been initiated by you."

"You still haven't answered my question." Sai gave her a form to sign that had blaring capital red letters on it, meaning she had to read it.

"Sorting though some paperwork. Look Sasuke I've gotta go, but I'll be home within the next hour, kay? Bye."

"Hmm. Okay, see you soon."

 

\----------

 

The next day Naruto woke up early with a still sleeping Sasuke, snuggling her. Specifically, his head was between her breasts. Again. Sighing internally, she looked at the desk clock and saw that it was 7:45. Well past the time for Sasuke to be up and gone for work.

Knowing the male was a workaholic who got very prissy when he wasn't working on a work day, she woke him up. What she wasn't prepared for was Sasuke shoving her further into the bed, a gun to her temple and his other arm placed in a choking hold. Looking into his eyes, he saw he was very glazy and not aware of what he was doing, so she decided to pry the arm off his throat slightly so she could talk.

"Well good morning to you too." She rolled her eyes when Sasukes widened and he jumped off the blonde as he had been burned. Brushing what had just happened under the rug, knowing if he questioned it, it would be very hypocritical, so instead she asked, "How comes your still here? Don't you have work today?"

Sasuke glared slightly and Naruto had to admit, with Sasukes dishevelled hair, messy clothes and gun in one hand, he looked absolutely damn right delicious. "You're eyes are screwing me in different positions. And as for work, the company is sorting through paperwork so they said they'd email or fax me if there was something that needed my signature. I had planned on sleeping in for a bit longer since I didn't sleep much last night."

Naruto just shrugged, knowing not to question it and went off to her kitchen to cook something up for them. "Hey Sasuke! What do you wanna eat?!"

"I'll cook. I did promise to cook over the weekend but you were avoiding me."

"Were you drinking last night?" Naruto asked, glaring at the dark haired male.

Sasuke blinked, "A few glasses, yes. What does that have to do with anything?"

"It just explains your behaviour from the phone call." At the confused look Sasuke gave she held back a snicker and continued, "You rang me whilst I was at work this morning, like, 3:30 or something. You went on about how I conditioned your body to fall be enjoy my scent or body heat and wanted me home, to let you fall asleep.

"When I got home you were tipsy. And kept shoving me back on the bed, each time I tried to get up. It was quite the sight to see, if I do say so myself. Although, I could have done without you trying to take my clothes off or shoving your head under my shirt… you even tried to take off my pants. At some point you ripped my shirt and tied my hands to the post. Drunk you is a flirt. Well, back to the present. What do you feel like cooking for me? This'll be the first time I'm having your cooking."

She looked positively gleeful so Sasuke decided to ignore that and went on to make them some pancakes, chocolate, banana, blueberry, plain and a few more.

After, the two of them got ready for the lunch their godparents had invited them to. Apparently since they both had no work to be at currently, Tsunade and Jiraiya decided to just get lunch over and done with.

They would be going with their respective family members as the couple didn't live in the complex and in fact lived in the opposite side of the city.

This would be a lunch they would never forget.

 

\---------

 

Sasuke met up with Itachi at the latter's house that was a five minute drive from the place they were going to meet everyone at.

Itachi had rang that morning saying he would come with Sasuke and leave with Inaho as she had his car. Sasuke chose, wisely, not to question why she had his big brothers favourite car.

On the way there Itachi started to talk, "Let's make a deal Sasuke, you don't cause a scene and I will butt out of your personal life for a month."

"Make it two and you got a deal." They shook hands and Sasuke parked up on their godmothers drive way.

Once they got out of the car, they made their way up to the door when Sasuke heard a very familiar voice.

"Oh come on! What on earth could be keeping them up exactly?! I swear, Naruto, when they get here I'll give them a real good lecturing!"

"I doubt they'd appreciate being lectured aunty. Give it a rest and let the boys be boys." Looking over to where Naruto was, he could see she had changed out of her boy clothes and into very fitting female clothes.

Sasuke would have to resist the urge to burn all of Naruto's guy clothes when he got home as her current outfit was causing his brain to malfunction.

She was wearing a tight fit orange and black zip up sleeveless shirt with a black Chinese skirt, the slit going up to her mid-thigh, giving him a glimpse of her weapons pouch but more importantly, her thic thighs. The skirt hugged her arse and upper thighs in ways that gave him thoughts that his godmother most definitely wouldn't approve of.

He couldn't see a single inch of Naruto right now that didn't look positively ravishing. Binding her chest was practically a sin in his mind yet at the same time, he didn't want other people ogling her like a piece pf meat, similarly to how he was looking at her.

He was in fact so distracted by the sight of her, he hadn't registered her coming over till she waved her hand in front of his face, "How long do you plan on ignoring me?" she had a pout on her face as she crossed her arms under her chest making them far more noticeable in the tight shirt.

His brother had gone over to the albino haired woman who always scared the shit out of him, not that he would ever admit it because he wouldn't. And he would sadly have to get used to seeing the woman since his brother was engaged to her and Naruto was her niece.

Gritting his teeth, he gripped her by the waist, pressing her to his front, ignoring her squeal of surprise, before whispering in her ear, "If you were my girlfriend, I would honestly feel like bending you over and ravishing you senseless."

Quite the confession. Thought Naruto a dark blush took over her face as she tried to get out of his grip with no luck, she didn't want to strain her injuries even more than she already had. "Grandma Tsunade is looking."

"Let her look." He smelt her hair which smelt like his shampoo. Which would explain why his had been finished when he took a shower that morning, "You naughty little girl. You used my shampoo." He tightened his grip on the writhing blonde, confused by the look Inaho was giving him.

"One, mine was finished when I got in the shower and didn't want to get out to get a new one. Two, you like your hair products way more than I do. And three, I'm starting to think you like kinky shit. Last night you pinned me to the bed, ripped my shirt and tied me to the bed. You also like pinning me to the walls." She wrapped her arms around his neck as she absorbed his scent, her frame shaking slightly in his hands.

"What's wrong?" he murmured into her hair as he removed his coat which wasn't a very easy task considering the blonde that was latched onto him.

She moved back slightly and gave him a pained smile. At the sight of it he thought of the several ways he knew how to torture people slowly and painfully without actually killing them. He was leaning towards poisoning the person who had hurt her and only giving them the antidote when it was needed.

"My aunt has been pushing that I go back to the five nations and look for a lover. I don't want to go. Granny also wants me to go and get on with it. The two of them are tag-teaming against me. The only person on my side is the old pervert."

She had started to walk into the house whilst Sasuke held her hand, as Sasuke resolved to show or at least tell Tsunade and Inaho that they couldn't control his blonde. Since he couldn't torture them like he planned, he would try and be as creative as he could.

 

\----------

 

Naruto was sat next to Sasuke on the round shaped table that her godfather was so very fond of. They were sat in two's; Jiraiya next to Tsunade who was sitting next to Itachi then Inaho who was sitting next to Sasuke then herself.

She was relieved that she wasn't sitting next to either of the elder females. They were all discussing a completely civilian matter; the number of murders that were happening lately.

Okay, not so civilian but it sort of was when it wasn't your company doing the killing.

Lunch was still in the oven and the youngest pair had been requested to set the table. When they made their way to the kitchen Sasuke gripped her left arm.

She furrowed her brows when he didn't say anything, "Sasuke? Is everything alright?" she moved closer and placed her right hand on his dominant arm which seemed to wake him to reality.

He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a ring. "I wanted to give this to you for your last birthday but never got round to it since you were on a business trip at the time. Then I was going to give this to you as an extension of my apology for groping you, but I've changed my mind. It also matches my own ring that you gave me for my birthday a while back."

He took a hold of her right hand and placed it on her ring finger, causing her to look up at him confused why he would put the ring there. "I'm not proposing. You said you wanted to stay, all you need to do is pretend to be in a relationship with me… It'll be a pain in the ass but it'd work. At the very least you won't have to be sent away. It'd be believable anyway, the people around us already think we're together. This way, people would still believe we are together even in your male persona."

She gave him a large smile before launching herself into his arms causing them to stumble back slightly. She took a moment to take a look at the ring.

It and saw a simple yet beautiful ring similar to the one she had bought Sasuke a few years ago for his birthday. It was a silver ring with flames engraved onto it and an obsidian stone, the same shade as his eyes. In comparison, the one Naruto had bought had swirls on and a blue gem the same shade as her own eyes.

She could feel an engraving on the inside and when she asked Sasuke what it was he said it was a fancy U, the same one as she had had engraved on his. They both had last names beginning with the letter U so it made sense.

Deciding they had taken too long, they both quickly got a hold of the cutlery that was needed, Sasuke offering to take the heavier things as her shoulder wound could open at any time.

They went mostly unnoticed by the adults as they handed out the dishes. The only one that seemed to have caught sight of her ring seemed to be Itachi yet he chose not to comment.

Naruto was still trying get the vision of the time she had walked in on him and her aunt screwing. It was far worse now because she actually had a face to go with the body.

She was slightly confused however. Inaho had said she was dating an assassin. That meant that Sasuke's older brother was an assassin who worked for the same company she did. She would have to have a word with him to keep her secret a secret.

She had no doubt in her mind that the man had already put the pieces together already. Naruto was even willing to bet he had put the pieces together the night he came over. He seemed to be a very intelligent person, and intelligent people always frightened her, if they were smarter than her that is. But he was most definitely smarter than she was.

Lunch was served a few minutes after they had set the table. Roast chicken and potatoes with lots of tomatoes for Sasuke.

"Naruto. I couldn't help but notice you have a weapons pouch strapped onto your leg… what do you work as exactly?" asked Itachi. By the glint in his eyes, Naruto knew he was screwing with her. It made her understand why Sasuke thought his brother was a bastard. He most certainly acted like one.

"I work as a security guard for a CEO. I work at night since he parties a lot." She gave a glimpse at Sasuke only to see him glaring at his brother, right hand clenching the fork in his hand. His left hand which was under the table suddenly found its way onto her thigh.

Naruto was surprised at the sudden contact but decided against showing it, it would make people wonder why and she didn't want to explain. "Interesting. Oh, I heard you knew my roommate Shisui Uchiha. Do you know many of the Uchiha clan?" Itachi looked towards Sasuke as he finished the question, confusing Naruto as to why. Did he know members of the Uchiha clan yet hadn't told her for her blatant disregard for them?

"Um… I know a few of them. I don't really get on with them, for personal reasons…" she was growing uneasy with the direction of this conversation, yet was unsure how to change it without being obvious.

"Could you perhaps name a few?" Naruto was certain he was smirking under that smile. It made her want to punch him. Similar to how she felt when she met Uchiha's, perhaps that was due to their conversation.

"Well Shisui obviously. I knew the previous head, Fugaku and his wife Mikoto. Then there's this girl, Izumi I met a few times… and Obito."

"So, you don't know a man named Madara Uchiha?" at the name Naruto's blood ran cold. It had been years since anyone she knew dared say that name in front of her.

She tuned out all sounds. She could barely make out loud yet muffled voices through her hands which she used to cover her ears. She clenched her eyes shut, willing the images in her mind to go away.

Yet they wouldn't go. She could see Madara in her home, face and clothes covered in blood as he raised his sword manically. There was no style to how he swing around the weapon, mindless maniac, and psychopath.

Her breathing became irregular as she lifted her legs to her chest, gasping for what little air she could take, yet her throat felt numb and she could feel her sweat form around her clenched muscles.

It had been years since she last had had a panic attack and she couldn't remember how to bring herself out of it.

Her hands were suddenly ripped from her ears forcing her to open her eyes wide as she stared at the person in front of her.

Sasuke.

He was holding her hands as she gasped for breath when he spoke calmly and slowly, "Naruto, please, copy my breathing. Okay?" she gave a small nod and followed his breathing. They inhaled deeply pausing then exhaling deeply. They repeated this over ten times before she finally started to breathe normally yet she knew the attack hadn't ended.

Somehow, Sasuke knew as well. He lifted her in his arms as he carried her upstairs, away from everyone in the room. Away from the madman.

He gently placed her at the edge of her room's bed, kneeling before her as he took her face in his hands, brows furrowed as he looked at her.

With shaking hands she took a hold of Sasukes larger hands and gestured she wanted to lay down with him. He gave her a small smile as he picked her up and laid down next to her, her head pressed against his shoulder as his arms wrapped protectively around her.

In that moment, Naruto knew she was safest in the arms of her neighbour.


	9. Truths

 

Sasuke listened as Naruto's breathing calmed down, yet was still shallow. She had a tight grip on his shirt however after some time the grip loosened.

He felt murderous. Not surprising considering he was and assassin and often had the urge to kill his older brother. However never had he felt righteous fury towards him. When an Uchiha feels righteous fury you had best run and hide well.

Looking down he noticed she had fallen asleep and weighed his options. Go downstairs and berate his older brother and find out what caused this attack or stay with her.

After two minutes he decided to berate his brother. Slowly he disentangled himself from the blonde and left the door open so he would hear her if she woke up.

He looked back to the door wondering if this was the right idea. He had had no idea Naruto suffered from panic attacks and was almost certain that he would have known if she did. He suddenly felt bad that he hadn't done much to make sure she was okay, only the occasion he would send people to the wrong address to make sure she was alright but that was it.

He made his way downstairs slowly as he heard whispered arguing coming from the four adults.

Deciding against eavesdropping he started to speak, "What the fuck was all that about Itachi?"

His glare and the vehemence in his voice caused Tsunade and Itachi's eyes widen before returning back to normal, "I apologise and when Naruto wakes up I will apologise to her as well. I had no idea this would happen. All I wanted was to know what she knew of out clan. If I knew this would happen I would never had mentioned anything." He raised his hands in a surrender position and Sasuke knew he meant it.

How was his brother to know something that not even he, her neighbour, knew? That didn't stop him from glaring at him and the others. They had known and had done nothing.

"Why didn't any of you change the subject? What is it about my clan she doesn't like so much?" he looked to Jiraiya as he was always the most level headed when it came to serious matter. Although his brother was also however he didn't want to talk to him anymore for a while.

"You'll have to ask Naruto to fill in the blanks. There should be no worry of anything triggering another panic attack as long as she feels safe. What I can tell you is Madara did something so bad that she has to hide who she really is. She doesn't dress as a guy for her job, she does it to hide from that madman. She-"

He was interrupted by a loud scream coming from upstairs. He made his way quickly up the stairs, taking his gun out as he told the rest of them to stay downstairs. He ran into Naruto's room and saw her looking around frantically, hand clutching the duvet to her chest.

He gave the room a once over and when he noticed there was nothing out of place form when he had left the room a few minutes ago he sat down on the bed, placing the gun next to him as he picked up Naruto and put her on his lap.

Her breathing was erratic as she tightly clasped the collar of his shirt, his own hand clutching her hair tightly. "Hey, hey what's wrong?"

"I-I didn't know wh-wher you went and though that someone had- that he came and-"

"Sshhhhhh. No one will hurt me. Okay? I'm fine. I was with the others downstairs. I don't want you to ever worry about me, worry about yourself, okay?" he whispered into her hair.

She nodded into his neck as she once again calmed down, trying to calm her breathing. His hand that wasn't in her hair was stroking down her back.

His phone gave a ping and the personalised tone left no doubt that it was from work. He decided to ignore it, if it was an emergency his brother would have been dispatched and Sasuke would have been rang instead of texted.

He also tried to focus on something other than the blonde who was sitting on the wrong place, making his lower head think things it shouldn't.

He silently praised the lord when everyone came upstairs looking very weary. Naruto for her part didn't look any different however she tensed and her hands clasped his collar tightly once again.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?" asked Jiraiya causing her to nod, a small smile spreading across her face when the elder man open his arms, inviting her for a hug.

She looked to Sasuke and when he moved his head for her to go she went and hugged her godfather. He raised her off the ground, holding her tight to him, "Don't do that. If you don't like something, say and we'll be more than happy to work around it. Okay?" she nodded her head in his chest, causing several chuckles to erupt in the room. Whilst Naruto was a lot taller than most females she was very much shorter than her godfather, only meeting him up to his collarbone.

Sasuke stood up when Jiraiya gestured for her to return to the dark haired boy, which she did happily. He wrapped his arms around her, clutching her tight to him, letting her know she was safe with him.

"Naruto…" began his brother, causing her to look up at him, "I am very sorry about earlier today. I had no idea that the subject would upset you. Is there anything I can do to make this up to you?" Sasuke raised a brow, shocked his brother was once again apologising yet knew he had to do it.

Her reply had been something he hadn't expected, "Stop walking in on me and Sasuke and I will stop walking in on you two."

The comment caused several brows to raise as Tsunade to turn red as she pointed between the two of them, sputtering gibberish.

Naruto watched happily as Tsunade turned red and spoke incoherently. Her aunt looked to be on the verge of feinting, Itachi looked proud and Jiraiya looked pained as he restrained himself from grabbing his notebook, muttering how he mustn't perve on his godchild.

Sasuke's hand went to her lower back as he whispered, "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

This caused her to smile broadly as she whispered back, "I am the self-proclaimed king and queen of pranks. Of course I'm enjoying this. I thrive off of this."

He chuckled before Inaho spoke, "So the two of you… are dating?" she asked more than stated.

Itachi wrapped an arm around her as he replied, "I suppose you didn't notice the ring on her right ring finger?"

All eyes went onto her right hand which was on Sasuke's chest, all focusing on the ring, noting how it was simple as Sasuke's. Jiraya groaned, "You didn't get married without us did you gaki?"

It was Naruto's turn to turn red as she spluttered out her denials. _Why does everyone seem to think we're married?_

"So you plan on getting married?" asked Tsunade, her face having returned to its usual colour.

Before she could reply, Sasuke took control of the situation, "I would like to take her home now where she can relax without all you you're hovering, if nobody minds." He didn't wait for a reply as he hoisted the blonde over his shoulder and carried her out of the room. "Ring me if it's important and by important I mean someone is dying."

He reached the bottom of the stairs, grabbing a hold of everything they would need; Naruto's clothes bag, her coat, his jacket and his car keys. As he left the house he turned around and bid them farewell, giving a light smack to her arse, causing her to squeal.

When they made their way outside Naruto began to fidgit and spoke, "Sasuke… I shouldn't be outside dressed like this…" she was nervous of what could happen if someone recognized her.

His hand that was holding her onto her thigh tightened, "Just keep you head hidden in your hair. My car has tinted windows so no one will notice you inside unless they have x-ray vision." When her muscles didn't ease he carried on, "No one can lay a hand on you whilst I'm here." He unlocked his car and laid the blonde down in the back telling her to stay there as they made their way back.

As a contracted occupant Sasuke had his own garage as did Naruto so when he parked in next to his other cars he looked back to see she hadn't moved. Naruto felt herself glow when she saw he was pleased she had listened.

He got out of the car and opened the door where her feet were, grabbing a hold of her ankles he slid her to him, causing her to squeal and try to cover her arse as the skirt had ridden up.

He lifted her up being mindful of her head as he carried her out of the car. Her legs were wrapped around his waist causing her to once again blush a bright shade of pink.

He made his way to an elevator and she opened her mouth to protest, people would see her, when he spoke, "This is the staff elevator. None of the staff are in today and I just so happen to have a copy of the key needed to operate it. It will take us straight to our floor and no one will see you. I won't let anyone see you in this… outfit you seem to think is acceptable to wear around my brother."

His eyes darkened in anger as his hands clenched her thighs tighter. Realization dawned over her, "Are you… jealous I wore this with him there over when we're at home?"

The comment got her a shove against the elevator, causing her to gasp in shock. She hadn't been expecting to be pushed, especially so violently. However instead of annoying her like it did with anyone else, she was excited. Her heartbeat went faster as did her breathing slightly.

Sasuke spoke through clenched teeth, "You will be the death of me. That skimpy outfit will be the death of me. The fact that you would prance about like that will be the death of me." Something inside him must have snapped as one minute he's talking and the next his lips are on her neck, causing her to moan.

Arching her back, she sifted her fingered through his spiky hair. She found it yet again unusually soft, despite how it was shaped. She didn't get a chance to focus on that for long as he trailed his lips to her ear, gently biting the lobe before saying, "He has no right to see you look so beautiful."

His comment caused her to blush. Naruto knew she looked better than the average female due to her figure yet she had never found herself beautiful especially considering her female friends. Hinata and Ino were better suited for the endearment yet she knew Sasuke didn't lie, lest it was necessary and right now he had no reason to lie.

Finally the elevator stopped and the doors opened, yet Sasuke made no inclination to move however as the doors began to close he pressed to button to open them and carried on walking, his lips never leaving her neck.

Her breathing became uneven as they stopped at her door, Naruto reaching for Sasuke's keys in his pocket and opened her door using the spare key she had slipped on it the other day.

Closing the door it automatically locked with the new locks that had been recently installed and still he didn't release her. Mentally she praised his strength. Naruto wasn't fat but she wasn't the lightest person out there and to carry her for this long had to make his arms feel a slight ache.

He carried on and laid her down on the sofa, "Are you wearing anything to cover your chest?" he asked as he undid the next two buttons of his shirt, catching her immediate attention.

"I uh… I have uh… cover over my…" she circled around her areolas face flushed red once again.

 

\-------------

 

Sasuke woke up feeling very comfortable and warm yet could feel a distinct chill. One thing set him on slight alarm, his pillow was moving and it didn't usually do that.

Groggily he opened his eyes and saw he was sleeping on Naruto's stomach. She was wide awake as she looked at him, her eyes laughing at the dark haired male as he groaned and burrowed into her again.

"You realise I have work to do and so do you." When he didn't raise his head she used her nails to gently scrape across his back which he found was bare, hence why he had felt cold earlier.

Groaning he looked around to find his shirt which he found on the blonde who had simply not buttoned it up so he leaned over her, "Do I get my shirt back or no?"

She gave a contemplative look yet he knew what the answer would be, "Nope. You have covered half of my front with hickies. You can walk around without your shirt in return."

He raised a brow at her flawed logic not seeing how she was punishing him by making him waltz around shirtless yet decided to humour her, "Are you sure you can handle the sight of me without my shirt all day? I don't think you'll be able to resist me." She was about to speak up but he silenced her with a curt kiss, "I've got dinner already planned so what do you want to do for the rest of the day? Stay at home or go somewhere? If you want we could make plans to go out of the city…"

He looked expectantly at her as she raised herself so she could button up the shirt, she only did the middle three giving him clear view of her toned stomach and chest. He could also see several love bites that he had left on her the previous night.

She took her meditating pose with her eyes opened as she thought about it, "Why don't we stay home and plan an outing for a few days. You mentioned that your workplace is closed for a bit right? Mine is doing a security check on information leakage so I'm off till further notice but I'm definitely off this week. How does a trip to my dad's Florida beach house? We can get you a tan whilst we're at it."

He hoisted her over his shoulder again, giving clothed her rear a smack causing her to giggle as he made his way to her kitchen, placing her on the table as he sat on one of the chairs.

"On the subject of family… could you tell me about yours? What happened yesterday with my brother's questions…" he trailed off when he saw her smile falter slightly.

He took a hold of her hands, kissing each of the knuckles as he looked her in the eye, waiting for her rejection of an answer yet it never came, "Madara Uchiha… well first let's start with Fukagu and Mikoto Uchiha. They were friends with my parents who I won't name… Fugaku had never really liked my father very much as they always clashed. Madara liked him even less than Fugaku because he married my mum.

"I was six when they stopped talking to each other. One night mum and dad sent me to bed a little late, this was a few days after my birthday. I was in my room when I heard yelling, from who I didn't know. Mum and dad had just told me a story and had gone downstairs to check something meaning dad left his phone upstairs with me. I had always been told should anything happen, hide in the wardrobe inside this box of clothes which had a small peeping hole inside it." He placed a hand to her cheeks to wipe away the tears but didn't disturb her, despite the heavy breathing.

"I went in there with my dad's phone making sure I was fully hidden making it seem like I had escaped through the window. I contacted Jiraiya via texts. My dad installed this feature where you could send an SOS and make the other person realise it with a loud blare of their phones. He received it and told me what to do as he came to my house. Madara had come upstairs, most likely to kill me but I was safely hidden.

"He looked mad. My parent's blood was all over his clothes and his sword… he waved it around like a maniac. When Jiraiya came, he came with backup, giving a sleeping dart to the psycho. He called the authorities and made sure the man was locked away for good. This was when I was seven. A few months after that another came and attacked… the person looking after me that night killed the man."

Sasuke stared in shock. He knew his family were assassins like himself, they weren't innocent and neither was he, yet he always drew the line when it came to children. His great grandfather had tried to kill her. His family had tried to kill the beautiful, kind-hearted, bright and strong willed woman in front of him.

He couldn't find the correct words to describe how he felt for the blonde at the current time, however his mouth wasn't as caught up as his brain, "Did they… did they do anything else to you?"

She gave him a small chuckle, "You're the first person I've met that knows that story and didn't immediately say 'I'm sorry'. Thankyou."

"You didn't answer my question." He had to know. Had to know what other sins his clansmen had committed towards the girl in front of him.

"I've told you a couple of times my sight isn't perfect but that wasn't always the case. Sometime between Madara's attack and the second I had been attacked by and unknown assailant wearing a similar outfit to the one Madara wore that night, had attacked me and partly blinded me on my right eye. It's why I'm no good at sniping, I can't see.

"Then there's these whisker marks on my cheeks. Before I turned six I had been kidnapped by a group of people and they had given me these marks. I couldn't see anything but they said they were under orders of the Uchiha clan elder. Later I got them tattooed over to make them look less like scars and more like they were done intentionally."

Sasuke weighed his options, keep his name hidden and fix the sins of his family one day telling her the truth or tell her now and face the possibility of her hating him.

.

.

.

Naruto was quite pleased with herself. She had managed to tell sasuke about a childhood trauma she hasn't spoke to anyone else about. Her family already knew so she assumed never talking about it came from that fact.

She looked at him curious by his expression. He seemed to be contemplating something, what he could be contemplating was beyond her. However she felt her shoulders tense when after a minute and he hadn't said anything. 

Thoughts of sasuke leaving because he felt this was too much scared her, made her skin clammy and her heartbeat hastened. She was so used to his presence in her life that when she tried to imagine life without him, she couldn't.  

Couldn't imagine not hearing him swearing as he got ready in the morning, not hearing his crappy taste of music, not hearing his footsteps as he locked the door to leave. 

Unconsciously her breathing accelerated and she knew she couldnt do it. Couldnt live without him near her. Within the years of them hating each other she had become attached the the mental security she felt around him. They had hardly seen each other and yet she had felt this strongly. 

She suddenly felt Sasuke tug at her hair, brining her face to his as he gently moulded their lips together. It was as if a switch had been pressed and the anxiety she had felt moments ago had sunk back into the darkest depths of her.

He pulled away from her, running a hand through her hair as he he looked her in the eye, "I think I've found a wonderful way to distract you." He gave a smirk which made her want to slap it off his face yet decided against it.

"So what's your verdict? Do you think you can handle me now? Knowing that I haven't told you everything as well as knowing partially why I'm in hiding?" she wouldn't admit it but she was anxious what his answer would be. 

Her anxiety turned into elation at his reply, "I see no reason why I should leave you. You make life a bit irritating but very much more excitable compared to my routine like life before." 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no. they did not get up to anything frisky. just lots and lots of kissing and stuff. i won't be going into anything graphic and that will be the limit of definition. if i write it i will most likely keep second guessing it, as i did with this last chapter.


	10. Change of plans

Sasuke held tightly onto his seatbelt as Naruto drove them recklessly in his car. Despite her hazardous driving she hadn’t hit a thing, the curb, a person nor an animal the entire way to her Florida beach house.

It made him wonder a few things, about her family and about her in general. They were closer to each other yet he didn’t know anything personal. Well, not quite. He knew about her childhood trauma that had paved her life after. Her professional life she kept to herself which he could accept readily, he did do the same thing after all.

Naruto seemed to notice his distress so she lowered the radio volume almost completely as she spoke up, “So what’s on your mind, eh?”

He looked at her, taking in the sight of her dressed as a male, her shoulder length hair was tied up in a half pony tail, only the front being tied and the rest being completely down. It made people question her gender yet her clothes and hidden figure made them believe she was simply a very pretty boy.

“Stuff. I was thinking how I know stuff about you but I don’t ever talk about me. Are you fine with that?” not quite what he was thinking yet didn’t have it in him to admit he was thinking about her.

“I’m very understanding after the crappy cards I’ve been dealt, Sasuke. We live together, it’s not like I don’t have time to get you talking. If you don’t want to talk, I get it. If you want to, I’ll obviously start asking.” She changed lanes, at the beachy area. They had made their way to Florida in a few hours  by flight taking their car with them and were navigating their way to this secluded area where her family’s beach house was at.

“Ask away.” He found himself saying causing her to look startled, clearly not having expected that.

“Are you serious?” he leaned over and kissed her forehead before waving his hand for her to start, which she did. “Well… tell me about your family. I know your parents have been dead for a while and your brother raised you but that’s all I know.”

He hesitated, unsure how to answer without her noticing his family were the ones who were supposed to raise her. “Well… my dad died working, bodyguard work like us. When my mum found out she killed herself, unable to take living without him, despite the fact that she had my brother and me. They both did a lot for us growing up, accepting my brother during this stage he and Shisui were pretending to date-”

“Oh I need a back story on that.” She was grinning like the Cheshire cat as he chuckled.

“It was basically this thing I came up with to make the fangirls get away from them. They would bother him less if they though he was into men and Shisui was very compliant. The girl he was dating was made aware of what was going on and was okay with it, she seemed to really enjoy herself when she went out in public with them. After Itachi finished high school they stopped the façade. Oh, he went to high school a lot younger than you’d think since he graduated from there at 15.”

She whistled, impressed at his achievement, “Where did you guys live? We speak often in Japanese and you speak fluently and not with an accent.” They made another turn, causing him to frown. He was almost positive they had already drove past this rode, but he could be mistaken.

“We uh, lived in Konoha…”

This caused both her brows to rise, “I find that odd. Both of us are from the same place but and we speak fluently without accents in both languages. Ah, we’re here.”

She gestured to a yacht causing him to raise his brow, this was not what he had been expecting. At seeing his expression she chuckled whilst undoing her seat belt, “We’re taking the yacht to the beach house. You know how there are small island-like things on the outskirts of Florida?” when he nodded she continued, “Well there’s this small island not far from there that has a beach as well as the beach house. It’s off the radar since it has several scramblers which only allow devices to work when they get a certain code, password and other things. It can’t be hacked, as soon as someone tries it sets off a set of triggers that will destroy the device doing the hacking and it will take in the feed of the person doing the hacking as well as their picture.”

He raised a brow as he followed her lead, getting out of the car as they took their duffle bags out. They made their way to the yacht where a dark skinned platinum blonde man with black sunglasses waved them up.

Naruto grinned at him and they gave each other a fist bump as they greeted each other. Sasuke took a notice that the man spoke in very bad raps.

It took the two of them a total of ten minutes to bring everything from the car as he directed two other people, a girl and boy, to go do something. He then bid them farewell as they all made their way off the yacht.

“Wait, wait, wait. If they are all going, who’s driving?” 

Naruto smiled as she gave him a kiss to the cheek, “I am.”

His heart beat accelerated, she was a dangerous driver on the road never mind how she travelled on sea, “Do you have a license?”

“Of course. Don’t worry, I’ve been doing this for a while. Before I met you I would be sent to places like this every so often…”

She looked over at the boy who came back to them, his brows were furrowed as he spoke in her ear. Whatever he said caused her to groan as she mumbled in Japanese.

She turned to him with an apologetic look on her face, “There’s something wrong and we can’t go to the beach house. Well we could go on a boat but I don’t want others to know about it…”

He went to her placed a hand on her shoulder, “I don’t mind. We can go back and find a hotel to stay in. we don’t have to get me a tan and we can do whatever we want in the hotel.”

She bit her lower lip as she contemplated what to do. In all honesty, Sasuke didn’t care where they were, just as long as they were away from his brother and job. As well as internet to keep up with anything the damn company wanted him to do.

 

\---------------------

 

Naruto mentally went through all the swear words she knew in all languages she knew. It wasn’t many, English, Japanese, Urdu and Arabic.

She glared as she drove them to a safe hotel that her mother’s side of the family owned. She was pissed off that her plans were being ruined by some idiot who decided to damage her lovely yacht.

Someone had tampered with the sails, mostly just graffiti and the tiniest of holes, however the fact that someone had come onto her property was enough to put her on high alert and she knew when she got the chance she had to inform Inaho about it as well as Jiraiya so they could look into it, as if they all didn’t have enough problems.

It didn’t take her very long to find one, after all the Uzumaki branched into the Senju and Namikaze as well as other smaller clans.

Once they arrived Sasuke hastily left the car causing her to look at him confused, did he not like her car? “Sasuke would you mind getting some of our bags whilst I check us in? I’ll bring the rest of them in-”

“You just check us in, once that’s done I should have bought everything out.” He waved for her to go so she tossed him her keys, pointing to where the reserved parking for her family was. Those keys also happened to have the key required to open the garage for her family as well, and went inside directly to the desk clerk.

“Hi, I’d like the penthouse suite for a few days.” She said as she rummaged through her pockets for her wallet that had her I.D’s in.

“I am sorry sir that is reserved for members of the Uzumaki family only.” 

She took out her wallet and gave him her I.D which stated she was a male called Naruto Uzumaki, “There should be no problem with me booking it then. I’d like my name to be anonymous, I’m here incognito and all.”

The clerk’s, who’s name badge read Erik, face went a bright pink as he stuttered out an of course and went straight to it yet when she saw Sasuke coming in she asked him to keep her last name a secret.

Sasuke wrapped an arm around her shoulders as he glared at a guy not far from them, “Sirs, if you will allow me, I will personally escort you to the penthouse.”

“No need. We’ll take ourselves there. Is there an express elevator or do we use the public one?” Naruto knew exactly where Sasuke was going with him questions and mentally debated whether or not she should berate him for considering it.

“There is a express elevator for the penthouse, sir.”

“Did you take Kurama and Kuro out of the car as well?” she asked Sasuke, as she couldn’t see their cages anywhere.

“Shit. Give me a sec, I’ll go-”

“No, no, no. I’ll go. Um, just get the keys and I’ll grab anything you didn’t see as well.” She left hurriedly to get them, knowing Kurama hated being caged for long periods of time like their travel had been.

Going into the garage she unlocked her car and took a hold of both their cages. Kurama growled for having been locked up and left alone whilst Kuro simply meowed. She looked around the car and noticed he had left her satchel there as well. Most likely due to not seeing it, it was under the seats after all.

Picking that up also Naruto made her way to the express elevator, ignoring as the other guests stared incredulously at her, most likely due to the fact she was carrying a grumpy looking fox that looked like he would kill everyone in sight.

She joined Sasuke along with their luggage by the express elevator, placing their pets down in the staff elevator who would take their things upstairs. #she went in the express elevator and as soon as the doors closed, she wasn’t disappointed.

Within less than three seconds Sasuke had her hair undone, back against the wall and wrists gripped in his hands, barring her from touching him, and lips devouring her own.

He kissed her like he argued, with no room for discussion, no denying or hiding what he thought or what he wanted. Unyielding. His lips, despite his cold personality, were hot against her own. She felt him try to enter her mouth, but she wouldn’t allow him access.

Of course, that set him off. His hand that was restraining her own ones found their way to her clothed rear, yet she refused to do what every female did in books. She refused to gasp and allow him entrance, and decided to refuse him further.  

He grinned, clearly enjoying the challenge as he hoisted her up against the wall, legs around his waist as his hands found their way crawling up her chest bindings, untying them to grasp her front firmly.

This time she could not supress her moan, and she internally cursed. She had planned on making this more of a challenge.

One part of her demanded to fight for dominance, the other part fought to be dominated. By him and him alone. The way his lips felt against her own, the way his hands felt over her body, the feel of him between her, she knew he wished for her to allow him to dominate. Yet when he dominated her, he loved her.

Smiling she allowed him to do as he pleased as the doors opened and he made their way into the room. The next thing she knew, she was being placed on her feet and then her front made contact with a long sturdy table. Or at least she hoped it was.

He leaned over her back, mouth next to her ear, “Do you trust me?”

The fact he cared to ask made her heart warm more than it was already. However he didn’t need to ask, she would trust him no matter what.

Nodding, he gave her a kiss before he devoured her very being.

 

\---------------------

 

Sasuke walked quietly around the room as to not interrupt Naruto’s short nap. The flight, drive and their activities had left her tiered so he had suggested she go to sleep whilst he did some stuff he needed to do.

What he needed to do was first to check the room for anything suspicious and after fifteen minutes of sweeping the area he found there was none. He looked back to Naruto when she mumbled in her sleep about killing people.

He though it should be weird, his girl was just as dangerous as he was yet she wasn’t since she wasn’t an assassin.

He found one thing suspicious, Naruto and he had had similar circumstances about work recently. Naruto was off work due to information control and he was off work for a similar reason however Itachi had also stated it was because of staff safety. More specifically, the major clans that hailed from the elemental nations.

Of course this bought his mind to Uzumaki. He had yet to apologise for his team’s idiocy and he mentally cursed. The longer he waited, the worse the situation would get. Uzumaki was a hot head who would most likely cause a large scene because he waited so long.

He started to make his way over to the balcony however he stopped in his track when two phones rang. One was his own and the other was one he didn’t recognise. Naruto bolted straight up and reached for her satchel that was beside the sofa, mumbling under her breath. Choosing to prioritise his work right now, he reached into his pocket he took out his phone and answered immediately, knowing it was his brother’s number.

“Sasuke. You need to come to work. Immediately. We have a problem and all staff need to be back as quick as possible.”

“I can’t. Naruto and I left for Florida and we’re staying here.”

There was a short pause as his brother allowed what Sasuke said to sink in, “You left the state whilst we have a breach?”

“Look don’t sound so annoyed. We mentioned it before we left and now we have. You were fine with it then you should be now.” He replied, irritated by how he was sounding. Whatever the situation was, it seemed to have Itachi on edge since he was berating Sasuke for something he hadn’t even done wrong.

Itachi let out a long sigh as he muttered Japanese curse words. In fact, Sasuke was sure he was cursing in ancient Greek as well. Maybe Itachi had been reading Rick Riodran’s books again. “Well, if you can’t be here in person you need to video call us, no I’ll do it. You just need to answer the call and give your input. Do it on your laptop- you did bring it right?”

“Yeah. I told Naruto I would still be doing work whilst here so I bought it.”

“Good, good. Not such a foolish move little brother. I have to go and sort this out… Uzumaki will hopefully be video calling as well but Inaho hasn’t confirmed that.”

He furrowed his brows, “Where did he go?”

“Out of state. With his significant other.”

“I notice how you didn’t state a gender.” He stated.

“Shouldn’t make a difference little brother-” Sasuke felt a set of arms wrap around him, he could tell it was Naruto as she gave the back of his neck a kiss.

“Hey Itachi!”

Sasuke turned around one hand holding his phone to his ear and the other wrapped around her waist as she grinned up at him. With her whisker marks and her hair colour, she looked a lot like a fox. Fitting since she loved the animal.    

He gave her a smile as he tried to discreetly steer her away from his conversation, “I’ll do as you said, when?”

“Twenty minutes. More than enough time to get her distracted with something else, no?”

He hung up, not wanting to hear what his brother had in mind for Naruto and instead decided to focus on said blonde himself. Putting his phone in his pocket, he tried his best apologetic face. “I’m sorry, hime.” His lips twitched as he saw her blush. It was a new thing of his, he was call her princess in their mother tongue and she would turn red. “I have some work to attend to in a bit. My brother rang to tell me it had been left back home for Me.”

Not quite a lie, he had assumed Sasuke was at home and set his work under that assumption. Sasuke tried to justify the lie yet he could feel the stone in his stomach and throat as he lied to her face. The smile on her face made him feel worse and he made a mental not to make it up to her. He also had to give her a dinner as an apology.

“That’s fine, I’ve got some stuff to do anyway so I’ll do that whilst you do work… did you want me in a separate room?” her smile never dimmed as she looked at him, the feeling of guilt lessening yet worsening at the same time.

“Please.

It’s basically a meeting I’m needed in. Apparently my dear older brother forgot we were leaving the state and told me to come in. Clearly I can’t though. I have a half mind to refuse him and stay with you.” He muttered the last part against her neck as he gave her a gentle kiss there.

She gave a short laugh, making him smile. Removing himself from her neck he looked at her and played with her hair. She hadn’t combed through it after their activities and it was tangled. Although he was used to it, Naruto wasn’t a girl who liked brushing her hair at home and only did so for work or when they left home.

He gave her a kiss on her lips as they separated, getting their things to do what they needed to do.   

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooooooo…. I’m back. Sorry for updating so late. I’m very busy with work and get tiered a lot and don’t get time to write without my attention going somewhere else. This chapter at the start I had to redo several times as I kept doing it wrong. Never mind. How is everyone? Good? I should hope. I hope everyone who celebrates Thanks Giving had a good time and if you don’t then I hope you had a good day then! Comment anything you want to ask or point out!


	11. Pestering

Sasuke was sitting in the master bedroom with his laptop and headphones watching and commenting on the sight on his laptop.

It was his and Naruto’s home. The walls had been graphited red and black, her bright coloured walls made dark and horrid. The furniture had been slashed through and turned over. Her kitchen cupboards had been ransacked and everything was all over the counters. Her bathroom wasn’t any neater, shampoo and other necessities spilt across the floor. Her bedroom was also destroyed. The bed ruined, the books in the floor, her clothes scattered everywhere.

He was highly thankful to her hiding her female clothes. Even Sasuke wasn’t know where she kept them and by the looks of it the people who had broken in didn’t know either. Her safety was paramount.

His apartment looked pretty much the same yet he didn’t care. Someone had broken into their home and destroyed the place when they didn’t find either of them.

What concerned him the most; was that he didn’t know who they were looking for. Both of their homes had been destroyed and he wouldn’t know anything until his brother checked surveillance he had had installed some time ago.

The other thing was getting everything in order before they got home. The company had so many things to deal with and getting their home in order was not on their priority list. He could call in a few favours from his teammates and have them redo their apartments but then it was a matter of letting them into his home, the only place he was free to do as he wanted. As long as it didn’t piss of Naruto of course.

He told his brother to do to his bedroom and check if anyone had found his weapons room and let out a sigh when it was clear. He gave his brother a walk through to check the CCTV and the culprits were found. Two men who he recognised; Kakazu and Hidan.

Mercenaries who shot first and asked questions never. He stiffened upon seeing them. It would be hard to keep Naruto safe if he had work and had to fend of those two.

It was then that a knock came from the door he closed the screen slightly and removed his headphones, “Come in!”

In came a very cautious Naruto. He could tell by the way she was fiddling with his shirt. He tried his best to focus on her face and not the fact that she was completely naked minus that shirt.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, moving to her as he turned the screen off. His brother would understand.

She bit her lower lip as she leaned against the wall, “Inaho rang. There was a break in back home… they need me back as soon as possible to sort some things. Apparently the information control that was supposed to be going on right now wasn’t done quickly enough and the people who messed up our home knows I live there. She wants me to move in with her till further notice, but I’m putting my foot down, I’m not leaving you.” Her voice became firmer and firmer as she spoke, making him break out a smile.

He walked over to her, hands by his side, restraining himself from touching her. It was very tempting, her messy locks were cascading just below her shoulders making him want to twirl them between his fingers yet he knew his focus should be on their conversation.

“You won’t have to. Since my home has been broken into as well, I have to move at least temporarily as well… my family owns a lot of houses and apartments around the globe, we can get what we need and go to one of them.” He watched her reaction closely, wanting to know what she was feeling yet her expression gave nothing away.

“Sasuke… I have to have my weapons and back home… I-I have weapons everywhere. I won’t feel-”

“We’ll bring however many weapons you want, however many you need until you feel comfortable. There’s no evidence they weren’t after me, it could have gone both ways. There should already be lots of weapons at the other places but most of them are shooting weapons, none are close combat weapons that you use.”

Naruto nodded slowly as she ran a hand over her face. The tightness in her shoulder deflated as she did so, “You have no idea how many minutes I stood outside this door planning this conversation yet all your replies are the opposite of what I would have expected. I’m not used to that, I’m usually the loose cannon, or at least known as the unpredictable one.”

She gave him a gentle smile as he leaned over to hug her, “Everything will be fine. I promise.”

He wasn’t sure how he would keep that promise but he would do everything to keep her safe and happy, even if he died he would come back to life to fulfil that promise.

 

\--------------

 

 Naruto glared at her aunt. She had bought over Tsunade, Jiraiya, Itachi and Shisui to talk with her clearly thinking it would make her calm down which led her to believe her aunt was on something bad, she was not going to calm down.

Naruto and Sasuke had gone straight back to New York only to be told they needed to go to a safe-house that had been broken into several months ago. No one would come over again as no one was expected to go to a safe-house that had lost its ‘safe’ title.

But apparently they did.

“You expect me to leave my apartment of three years completely and move in with one of you?!” she yelled, arms crossed as she looked at them.

Sasuke the traitor was standing in the corner of the room, arms folded as he leaned against the wall to watch her and her family. And the other two.

Inaho sighed as she shook her head, clearly frustrated with her antics. _Good, serves her right_. “Naruto you are putting yourself in unnecessary danger by wanting to move back in here.” She tried to reason with Naruto but the younger blonde was having none of it.

“And you are putting me in unnecessary danger by letting your boyfriend know I’m a girl! In fact-”

“You have no right to judge when Sasuke knows as well.”

“Oh don’t you bring him into this! I live next door to him, of course I want to be comfy so I like to be as a girl at home! What’s your excuse for telling Itachi?!”

“Naruto, they’re engaged-” spoke Tsunade yet she simply turned to face the other blonde. Thinking that made Naruto realise just how many blonde people she was acquainted with yet she didn’t allow the thought to fester.

“Yes engaged. Imagine if the engagement broke off then I would have a person I don’t trust know my deepest darkest secret which is the only reason as to why I am alive today! Genius plan!” she yelled sarcastically.

Inaho grit her teeth in response, knowing Naruto had a point. If their engagement gone wrong for any reason a complete stranger would know the secret Naruto had given so much for to keep as a secret and that could cost her, her life or the lives of those around her.

She glared at them all, willing them to just let her live her life as she wished. She wasn’t exactly telling the world she was an Uzumaki nor Namikaze, she wasn’t telling people she was an assassin, and she wasn’t telling the world she was a girl.

Whilst Naruto was thankful for how they had kept her alive and kicking her entire life, that didn’t mean she couldn’t be rebellious. She had always been the dutiful soldier, always listening to the commands given to her by the higher ups without question or fail. She had killed far more men and women than she cared to remember yet she never flinched or allowed it to affect her life.

If someone were to look at the blonde they would see a bisexual male who was as cheerful as a person came, never suspecting the truth. Well she was bisexual but that wasn’t the point.

Since she was a child she had done her duty and now that she had a simple request she was being denied. Screw that.

“It’s either my way or the highway. I have obeyed my whole life without ever asking for a single thing. Now I am asking- no, demanding that you let me live how I want to. I can protect myself and those I care about.” Her eyes whilst holding a fierceness that she usually kept only for missions also implored them to agree with her.

She counted the seconds in order to hold her bravado. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven- “Very well. You and Sasuke can live together.” Inaho said, yet she refused to smile, knowing there would be a ‘but’ coming sometime soon. 

She remembered in the Game of Thrones Jon had said Ned had once said that everything that comes before the word ‘but’ was horse crap.

“But there will be rules and certain demands. Fail to comply-”

“You seem to be under the impression that you’re doing me a favour. You’re not. Stop acting like you own Me.” she glared at her aunt and was about to continue when she felt Sasuke’s hands on her waist.

He whispered into her ear, “Calm down. Humour her, she won’t know whether or not we listen to her rules or not so it can’t hurt any.”

She deflated and nodded to both him and Inaho, allowing her to continue, “You need to be armed at all times, meaning Sasuke no matter how much you enjoy stripping her bare, I expect you to leave her weapons holster on her thigh and anywhere else she keeps them.” Due to having been around Jiraiya the two of them only gave the smallest of blushes, Naruto’s less prominent due to her tanned skin. “The next, make sure to not let anyone through the doors, not even us. We won’t come over and if we need to see you or talk with you, we will call or video call. Sasuke can leave for work as he usually does, Naruto on the other hand, you need to be escorted by Shisui who will wait outside your home for you. Any questions?”

She raised a brow expecting no one to argue with her and Naruto agreed.

Sort of.

“How come he gets to gallivant around town as he wants but I need a guard?” she pointed her thumb to Sasuke, miffed.

“Because Sasuke hasn’t been in such danger that he has to hide his identity, his gender and his family.” Everyone gave Sasuke a look when she mentioned family yet they went back to the conversation soon after. That wasn’t suspicious what so ever.

 

\---------------

 

“When do you intend on telling her the truth, Sasuke?” asked Itachi. The girls had gone with Jiraiya back to the apartment to go grab all of hers and Sasuke’s things whilst the three Uchiha remained where they were, talking.

“When I know she won’t mix up her hatred for our clan with how she felt about me for so many years. We weren’t the best of neighbours and I hadn’t been- I hadn’t been the most polite to her.”

He was interrupted by Shisui talking, “I’ve known her for ages. I know for a fact that she’s in love with you or at least highly besotted with you. I mean that with both its meanings. She can’t seem to get enough of you and she’s also highly infatuated. Even if she doesn’t know it.” He looked and sounded so sure of himself that Sasuke had to remind himself how to breathe.

Naruto and his relationship had progressed a lot, yet he hadn’t been so sure that she was in love with him. Shisui had basically made things a lot clearer and it made him thoughts a lot harder to organise.

“You need to confess the truth to her before she confesses her feelings, Sasuke. It won’t be fair to her to confess her feelings to Sasuke Uchiage only to find out he is in fact Sasuke Uchiha. She has another secret I know of only because of my relationship with Inaho, however I am sure she will be willing to share that information when you confess.” Spoke Itachi.

He understood why he and Shisui were pushing for this but it would take a lot on his part to confess. He would be telling Naruto he was a member of the Uchiha clan, a clan who she hated. However she seemed to get along with Shisui and Itachi. He was also sure he had heard her mention Obito once or twice so he assumed she knew him also.

It made the odds of her staying with him look a lot better however there was no confirmation. He was sure she would not change how she felt, merely how she viewed him.

“You’re thinking too hard, foolish little brother.” Itachi came up to him and poked him on the forehead. How he hated it when Itachi did that, it made him feel like a kid again. “It doesn’t suit you. When we think too hard we think of bad things. I am sure she will accept you no matter what. If she didn’t, I can’t think of another reason why she would accept your ring.”  

Shisui raised both his brows and got a twinkle in his eyes, however a glare from Sasuke made the glint and any trouble it may have caused go away.

For now.

“You make it seem like the ring holds a promi-”

“I do not care why she wears it. What matters is that she is. She trusts you, a lot more than she does her own family. I expect that your revelation will simply help to making her feel even more comfortable with you. She isn’t stupid, she knows you’re keeping something from her yet knows she can’t say anything since she has her own secrets.” He stopped talking as he turned around and looked to the front door.

Each of them raised their hands to their holsters and removed their guns, pointing them to the door and only lowered them when three blondes and one white haired man.

None of them said anything about the guns, clearly used to such a sight and not seeing them as a threat. At least to them.

Each of them were carrying several boxes filled with several things. It made him wonder how many of them were filled with weapons. He had promised Naruto she could keep as many weapons as she wanted and would keep to his word, but he would have to find room for all these weapons.

Naruto went straight to Sasuke when she put her boxes in Sasuke’s jeep. He held her close to him and led her to the car after bidding everyone farewell. They said nothing on their way to his apartment and it made him wonder why she was quiet. What she was thinking about.

He was thinking about his family’s earlier conversation so he could only assume she was thinking about her conversation from earlier with her family. It most likely had something to do with Inaho wanting Naruto to leave for Konoha again because she though Sasuke wasn’t good enough for her. In which he agreed. But in his head, no one was worthy of the cheerful blonde.

Fate had dealt her a very crappy hand similar to his own yet he was not able to smile through it like she did. He could only shun people, build barriers and keep people at a distance.

He was going on autopilot and had been taken highly by surprise when he felt lips against his own when he had exited the car. 

Naruto.

He smiled against her lips before pulling back, placing an arm across her shoulders and leaned her against him. He may be distracted, but not enough to not notice she wanted some attention which he could give.

They stood like this for a few minutes before Naruto sighed, stating they needed to get everything up to the apartment if they were going to be able to put everything away and have time for dinner.

Four hours later Naruto seemed to be very pleased with herself. She had placed her knives and other bladed weapons all around his apartment. In his sofa pillows, under the mattress, behind books on the shelves, and in the bathroom. Lots in the bathroom and bedroom.

He chose to make no comment since he had no room to judge, he also kept many weapons around the place as she had seen as she went around. In fact, in all homes, there was a hidden passage or room that held weapons brandishing the walls, making him feel a lot safer and at home.

Once everything had been put away they sat together on the sofa, their pets sitting beside them as they got their bearings together.

It hadn’t even been ten minutes after sitting down that a phone rang. He looked up confused. Naruto had very loud music as her ring tone and it was unlikely something so plain would belong to her.

He was proven wrong when she groaned and reached into her pocket for her phone. He didn’t recognise the phone she had. Well he did, he just didn’t remember Naruto owning it.

She got up, gave him a chaste kiss and headed out to a different room to take the call.

 

\--------------------

 

 “What’s up Konkuro?” she held back a groan as she spoke to him. It was supposed to be a vacation week yet she hadn’t had any more than a half day of vacation.

“Well captain, you sound cheerful this afternoon. But we both know that’s not why I called. No the reason I called was because there were attempts on Gaara’s life again as well as an attempt on Fu’s life.”

She froze at hearing the latter name. Fu was a young girl and was thrown into being the heir of one of the nine clans. By all means she was a civilian with a kind heart who should have been very much hidden. Very much out of harm’s way.

“How did they find out where she lives? It’s not on any device and the only people who know where she lives are members of the nine clans.”

She wasn’t insinuating anything, merely pointing out the obvious. “I think we’re thinking the same thing. Temari, Baki sensei and I were talking about this earlier and it’s likely that we either have a mole or someone’s being tailed without knowing.”

She gave no reply as she contemplated the two options. Both were the only options really and they had to make things clearer. If they didn’t nothing would change and everyone would be on guard even at home. As captain of the night shift, she won’t allow it. “I’m going to call a meeting soon to call for the nine clans as well as the major clans from back home. Not everyone, but at least one or two members of each. You and your two siblings should all come.”

“E-mail everyone about this and get back to me. We don’t have anything planned but if something happens we still need to attend this meeting. The air needs to be clear. Lives are at risk-”

“Konkuro. I get it. No one has a heavier heart about these things than the leaders. Get some rest and take care of Fu if she’s with you. In fact, can you tell me if she’s safe?”

She was being very careful. Their conversation could be tapped and to be careful they shouldn’t give away locations. “She is. She’s with eight.”

Eight was their code word of Killer Bee and other members of that clan. “Good. Eight will protect her. Have a good day, Konkuro, kay?”

“Okay, you as well.” With that he hung up and Naruto tossed the phone onto the bed, running a hand over her face and hair. This wasn’t what she had in mind when she agreed to move here but she shouldn’t have expected any less.

Wishful thinking seemed to be dimming her mood.

She quickly sent an email to each member of the nine and major clans to attend a meeting that weekend and hoped she wouldn’t have to go through too much to get it done.


	12. Lies revealed part 1

Sasuke liked to think he was taking everything in stride. First he had been told he could go on vacation and when he did, someone who was most likely after his girlfriend came and ransacked their home and causing them to return and move into one of the safe-houses. Next he’s told his annoying cousin would be escorted his girlfriend to work. Why, he didn’t know. Sasuke was perfectly capable of doing it.

To top it off he had yet to apologise to Naruto- both of them for different reasons. Keeping his name a secret also became a burden and he was unsure how to deal with all these problems that kept piling up. The cherry on the top had to be the fact that Naruto Uzumaki had called for a meeting of the nine clans as well as other clans about their protection.

Whilst he despised the male purely based on ethic he had to admit, the male did a good job making sure everyone was safe. Maybe he could contact him in hopes of getting some tips but his pride wouldn’t let him. It would only give the other male reasons to gloat. He kept hundreds if not thousands of people safe whilst he couldn’t even keep his lover safe.

Yet he was sure he could swallow it if it meant he could keep her safe. With the threat of Kakazu and Hidan, as well as whoever it is she was hiding from, he couldn’t afford to let her safety to be breached.

The other thing glaring its bright nose in front of him was that this would be the first time he was meeting the blonde male and vice-versa. He was sure they would be civil but the email he had received stated that Sasuke’s whole day should be made free in order to have a meeting with him in private afterwards. He would have to find an excuse to tell Naru.

“What’s got you brooding over in the corner for?” Speak of the devil. Although, Sasuke was more inclined to believe she was an angel, perhaps a fallen angel since she was so very inclined to fall into sin.

Unbeknownst to him, a small smile appeared on his face as he looked at the blonde. She had just come out of the shower in one of his plain black button-up shirts. She was wearing a bandage around her ankle which was something she had been doing a lot since she abandoned her long socks which used to cover her ankles.

When he asked about it, she shrugged and said there was something she didn’t want him seeing under there and he had respected that and not questioned it further.

“Nothing much. I’ve just got some work to do in a few days that’s got to be done at my workplace. One day it’ll be a half day and the next will be a full day so I might not be home till really late.” It wasn’t a lie, just a lie my omission. The meeting he needed to attend was partially work related so that would ease his guilt.

She furrowed her brows before letting out a sigh and leaned her head against his chest leaving him confused. He had expected her to throw a tantrum of sorts or at least ask a bunch of questions yet she didn’t which led him to wonder why exactly.

Placing an arm around her shoulders he held her to him, “What’s wrong? Are you not feeling alright?”

She shook her head before replying, “I had made an appointment for my right eye some time ago. They were either going to change my eye through some procedure I don’t remember the name of or laser eye surgery. The latter had been done before but for whatever reason didn’t work on me. But with everything going on there won’t be any time for me to go to the appointment. I’ll have to wait god knows how long for the next appointment as well.” She groaned into him.

Her reply shocked him, she had told him about her right eye yet she had never alluded to having an appointment made for it. “Is your sight in that eye that bad? Surely it can’t be since you work at night.” He didn’t understand how she was able to work at night with her vision. As far as he was aware you had to have very good eye sight to work at night and even members of the Uchiha and Hyuuga often struggled with it.

She shook her head, “It’s not that it’s that bad, just… you can’t see it but there’s a small scar in my eye that makes seeing hard.” She shrugged yet the way she spoke made him stop asking further, it was clearly something she didn’t want to explain to him and he wasn’t about to upset her over knowing about it.

With that mind-set he turned on the TV and passed the remote over to her. He hardly used the TV and paid it any attention unless it was the news, then he was interested. However whenever Naruto put something on he would watch the first ten or so minutes before deciding to watch her instead, her reactions and such were a lot more interesting to him anyway.

 

\----------------------

 

Naruto watched as Sasuke sat across the room doing some work. He had stated he needed some privacy as he was doing confidential things and she had said he could work on the other side of the room and she wouldn’t disturb him.

In front of her was a bunch of papers as she jotted things down for the meeting, however she was constantly having to stop in order to take calls from different people. Since she had been forbidden from leaving without an escort she was unable to leave the apartment and help everyone personally so instead she was making calls for her people to help each other out.

It was tiring her out. Normally she didn’t have so many people to help out yet now all these problems were rearing their ugly heads in right when she found herself in a relationship.

She had never been in a relationship that lasted longer than a night before as she couldn’t have people know her, yet somehow she found Sasuke was different.

Shaking her head, she decided to not let him distract her, Inahos words fresh in mind. She had said her relationship with Sasuke was stopped or at least clouding her ability to keep everyone protected. She of course tried to disagree but found she couldn’t. All of the crap that was going down had begun the same time the wall between their apartments had been broken down.

However she was firm in mind, she wouldn’t leave Sasuke unless he broke things between himself.

Kurama jumped onto her work and glared at her, or at least squinted his eyes and Naruto liked to think it was his way of saying ‘Shut your useless thinking and get on with your work.’

Chuckling to herself she gave him a short pet on the head before going back to her work.

One the agendas that needed to be kept in place was record keeping. She needed to know addresses, names, family etc. if she was going to be able to keep track of everyone. Her old system of hacking into things, and having her own little spy network around the globe was very helpful but it would be a lot easier if they came up to her and gave any and all information that she would need.

As it stood, the old way needed to be improved and this was the best she could come up with. Undoubtedly it would keep her very busy and give her little time to herself but it was something that had to be done in order to keep everyone safe.

Another thing was that all clan heads and the next in charge should have each other’s numbers so communication could go a lot easier between them and then there would be no delay or third party.

She had no doubt that she would have people arguing about these small things yet she was sure she could fight them off. It was vital that her plan go through or there would be more casualties that she couldn’t allow that to happen.

“What are you brooding over there for?” Sasukes sudden question had her looking up startled and wide eyed.

She looked at him and saw he was still sitting but had moved his laptop to the side and them got up, making a quick gesture to her work making her hurriedly move it to the side and upside-down so he couldn’t read it.

“You stole that from me.” she stated hoping he wouldn’t ask again. She hadn’t thought up a good white lie for him yet and didn’t want to lie completely.

He kneeled in front of her and took her hands in his, “You know you can tell me whatever you want, right?” Naruto hardly ever got Sasuke to start a conversation yet since they had left their old apartment temporarily he had been starting them on his own. It was as if their roles had reversed since she was in her head a lot more recently as well.

She gave him a small smile before kissing his forehead and gesturing for him to sit next to her. He did, a frown marking his brow as he did so only to leave when she flopped her head onto his lap.

 

\----------------------

 

Sasuke was startled at her sudden movement.  As of late, Naruto had been more and more tiered and it seemed today was no different. It was a lot different to her sunny, hyperactive attitude he had known she had, “Are you sure you’re okay? You seem to be really tiered as of late.” He sifted his fingers through her hair as he asked, hoping it would alleviate some of the tension she held.

Lo and behold it did, “Hmm… I’m fine. Just stressed out that’s all.” She mumbled as she curled into him. It seemed to be an understatement. The area under her eyes seemed to be slightly darker than usual and there was a frown marring her face whenever she thought he wasn’t looking but the thing was, Sasuke was almost always looking at her.

“What’s bothering you?” he gave a brief glance to the papers she had turned over and looked back at her. Confidentiality was key in his life and he knew Naruto had it in her life as well, despite his curiosity and concerns he couldn’t look at what she was doing unless she gave him permission to do so.  

She shifted so that she was facing upwards and looked him in the eye. Like this, you could see the lines of sleepless nights marring her eyes. They were squinted slightly and held a certain droopiness that he hadn’t noticed before, “Just some stuff. Both work and personal. My friends… the area they live in isn’t safe anymore so we’re all sort of going for a lunch or something to talk about all moving near each other temporarily. Of course I can’t move but I can help them. I have to.” There was a degree of conviction in her eyes that lit up like a flame as she explained the plans.

It was obvious that what she had told him wasn’t the whole story but he wasn’t one to pry into people’s business.

But it was very tempting to do.  However curiosity killed the cat and the thing with Sasuke was, he liked cats.   

They sat in silence after that as he thought about the meeting that would be held tomorrow. It was between him, his brother and a few members of the day staff who might be possible targets. Uzumaki had emailed him the previous night listing who and why each person would get attacked including the order in which it would happen.

He had been dubious at first however he had heeded the warnings and alerted them. To his shock the evening the first attack should have happened the house that person lived in had been ransacked like his own home and so had the next persons.

Day by day he was getting more, and more impressed with the work of Naruto Uzumaki. The other male seemed to be very meticulous about everyone’s safety that a jolt of envy spiked through him over how fast he managed to relocate everyone in such a short time.

Speaking of relocation, Sasuke had also made a connection about his Naru and his co-workers. He had found it in their history. Naruto went to the same school as some of the night and day workers who were friends with the people Sasuke hung around with at work. Shikamaru for example was a friend of Sasukes, however Ino was Shikamaru’s friends who was Sakura Harunos friends who was Naruto’s friend.

Another example was Gaara, Temari and Konkuro. They had all gone to the same camp Naruto had gone to for a month and after that had kept in contact.

It was hilarious how many of their acquaintances they both knew yet had never met till a few years ago. It was the same with Uzumaki. He hung around with people who knew Sasuke’s people yet the two had never met.

Shaking his head, he looked down to see Naruto had fallen asleep and for whatever reason the pile she had been working on looked even more interesting than it did earlier.

His curiosity was cut short by a certain orange-ish red furred fox sitting on them and started growling. Any pervious thoughts on peeking had instantly iced over.

Sighing he picked a pillow and switched it with his lap as he got up to finish his work.

Itachi and he had both been told by the leaders to write up information that knew about the personal lives of day staff members which oddly enough they both knew a lot about which they had to take with them to the clan meeting the next day.

So far he had done eight members and he only had two more to do and his brother would be doing the rest as he didn’t know them well enough to know their personal lives.

When he finished doing Kurenai’s personal life he flopped back on his chair, racking a hand through his hair as he glanced at Naruto who was still fast asleep.

Looking at the clock he noticed it was too late for either of them to have lunch so he got up and started to prepare an early dinner for them and if they got hungry again, they could have some tea and biscuits.

There was only one problem with Sasuke’s plan. He couldn’t cook.

Deciding to not ruin the evening with his cooking he was reminded that Naruto had ordered takeout earlier which would come within the next ten or so minutes meaning he would have to wake her up.

He got some ingredients out to make a salad that had lots of tomatoes in before Naruto emerged from the living room droopy eyed as she rubbed her eyes and made her way to him.

“The delivery guy should be coming soon. I’m going to go quickly take a shower so if he comes pay with my card. It’s the only card here since yours has expired and needs to be replaced and you can’t get it since its still home and- Are you paying attention to what I’m saying?”

He leaned down and gave her a kiss before pushing her towards the bedroom to go get ready for her shower.

Five minutes into her shower the doorbell rang so he got up and answered it, taking the pizza before picking up Naruto’s card, glaring slightly as he pressed in her password.

It wasn’t until he was about to put it in her pocket again that he noticed something that meant he was reading the card wrong. He had received so many email from Naruto Uzumaki as of late that he was seeing that name everywhere.

That was the only explanation he could think of for his Naruto having a debit card under the name of Naruto Uzumaki.

 

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Naruto left the bathroom and immediately furrowed her brows as soon as she saw Sasuke. He was sitting on the sofa with his laptop and was frantically working on his laptop, “Hey, is everything alright?”

She moved to sit in front of him and not next to him but it seemed it was unnecessary as he slammed his laptop shut, eyes holding a slight franticness as he looked at her.

He leaned forwards and made her straddle his lap and kissed her with so much energy that it took her by surprise.

She didn’t allow her shock to stay for long as she gripped his hair to bring herself closer in which he helped by placing a hand on her back and drew her to him before getting up, holding her to him as he did so.

She chose not to mention that their dinner was getting cold, or that he had basically just taken her after she had taken a shower and now had to take another one. He seemed to not be in himself and she didn’t want to upset him for no apparent reason.

 

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The next morning Naruto had decided to cover her hickeys Sasuke had left on her since she knew someone at the meeting would mention she was sleeping around rather than protecting them all.

Sasuke had left a half hour before she had gotten out of bed, stating he had to go see his brother and then go to work and gave her a kiss goodbye.

Once again she wondered what was wrong with him but shook it off, she had to think about today’s meeting and then she could think about what was wrong with Sasuke.

Getting ready took a lot longer with her making sure each and every love bite was covered before she left, making sure she had everything she needed and headed out with Shisui to her car and drove her way to the meeting place.

It was the Hokage industries. The company her father had inherited from Hiruzen Sarutobi which Tsunade was now running till Naruto felt like taking over.

She made her way inside and the people who recognised her male persona bowed and carried on doing their work. She went straight to the main office to collect the necessary files she dared not leave and Sasuke’s place in case that got broken into and made her way a floor down to the meeting room where all leaders and immediate family would be in waiting for her.

Taking a deep breath she entered the room as soon as she heard her name being introduced by Konohamaru, chin up and walked straight to her seat.

One person’s face, however, almost made her falter between steps.

Sasuke was there, standing next to Itachi where the Uchiha clan crest was sat.

 


	13. Lies revealed part 2

Naruto felt like slapping herself as she stood at the head of the table, regarding the leaders of all the clans she had to protect. And since she had to protect them she should have known the faces and voices of the leaders of the Uchiha clan, but clearly she wasn’t doing her won job properly. She blamed it on her reluctance to have anything to do with that clan.

That would have to be rectified.

Now that she thought about it, everything was obvious. Both Sasuke’s worked during the day, both using guns with sniping rifles as a preference, both had tendencies to be assholes, both granted on some of her nerves. Sasuke was having work problems the same time she had been having work problems.

It also made her furious and not the fact he kept who he was a secret. No, what made her furious was the fact Inaho, Itachi, Shisui, Jiraiya and Tsunade knew the truth and none of them had even told her.

She gave Shisui a discreet glance that promised a long and painful time alone with her later and she could see his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

Looking back at everyone she placed her documents on the table and spoke, “Thank-you everyone for making it here today. It couldn’t have been easy since I know some of you were enjoying your vacation however this meeting was very important and needed to happen.” She paused and allowed them all time to nod in her direction. “Before we being, would anyone like to bring anything up or ask anything? If not now then please write them down on the pieces of paper in front of you and we can discuss them at the end of my… speech.”

No one raised their hands she fiddled with the ring she had been given and opened the file and cleared her throat, “Right, so the first item on the agenda list is information keeping. We have had a lot of information leaks so instead of having copies of documents at the company HQ as well as the homes of each department head, only main leaders such as myself or Sasuke Uchiha for example with have copies. They would have to be kept in a vault or safe to ensure confidentiality and their safety. Does anyone here have questions this agenda?” a few hands were raised so she went over to them and handed them copies of the whole agenda, “This is a copy of the whole agenda, and this has all the information you need to know about this.” Others wrote on the paper for later.

She took her place at the head of the table and looked at them again, “The second agenda is new information. Thank-you to everyone that collected the information I needed and if you have a copy please hand them to me at the end of this meeting as well as email them to me.” all those who had contributed to giving her information about all members of the clans nodded their hands and she continued, “The third item on the agenda is safety and relocation. Due to the information leak people’s safety has been compromised. I noticed that not everyone would refer to me first and instead referred to people such as Inaho and Itachi Uchiha.

“I would like you to know that they are not in charge of your protection, I am. If anyone is in danger or you think you may be, contact me. I have my phone on me always no matter what. If you send an SOS to me my phone will make a loud blaring noise to alert me and the GPS trackers will notify me of where you are. If I can’t personally be there for reasons such as distance I will send someone close by on my behalf. But rest assured, I will make sure no matter what, someone will help you so please don’t contact them. They can’t do much outside of work hours.” That raised brows and many went and turned to Itachi who in turn looked to her, asking for permission to talk which she gave in a nod.

Sadly, looking at Itachi meant looking at Sasuke who was looking directly at her with a heated gaze. She knew what that look was and gulped silently before looking away.

“It is true. There is little I can do to ensure your safety outside of work hours so that duty is left to Uzumaki-sama here.” Once again people began to write down on their papers.

Very helpful Itachi.

“The third agenda is that clan leaders and second in commands need to have each-others number. In an emergency you’re not likely to email each other so if everyone could write their number on the smaller dotted paper as well as their name. I will get them typed by the evening and send them to everyone. I expect everyone to save those numbers as well.” She looked pointedly at Sasuke with a brow raised causing day staff to chuckle, knowing Sasuke would hate this arrangement however he said nothing. If anything, his gaze looked even darker and she had no idea how he was restraining himself from devouring her.

 

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If someone asked Sasuke what Naruto was saying, he would come out blank. All he could focus on was her domineering attitude, her outfit and the fact that he was the only person in the room, minus his brother and cousin perhaps, that knew each and every curve hiding beneath those male clothes and bindings.

He knew she was speaking about the agendas Uzumaki- Naru had sent the night before so realistically, Itachi was the only one who needed to pay attention.

He had seen her enter the room and his breathing caught, he could feel his brother watching him for a reaction but Sasuke had already found out the truth the night before so there would be interesting reaction from him. Naruto on the other hand… she had nearly faltered mid-step yet caught herself and continued her way. 

He felt the truth. He felt it in his very core. Last night could have been easily explained as something else yet here and now was 100% undoubtedly the truth. Lucky for him he had already accepted it.

However his gaze at first wasn’t devouring her, it was scrutinizing her. Trying to find the difference between Naruto Uzumi and Naruto Uzumaki and he found they were both the same. In fact this Naruto reminded him of when she was reprimanding him at home.

He was also trying to locate any negative emotions from her and for a brief moment he saw confusion before understanding entered her eyes again. It was unlikely either of them would argue about lying since they had both done it to protect the other, unnecessarily.

He once again felt like kicking himself for not putting two and two together yet he had been blinded by her. In his head the two Naruto’s were nothing alike yet the evidence was in front of him that they were a lot more alike than he would have ever thought.

Once he and Naruto talked later, he was going to have a go at Itachi, Shisui and Tsunade for not telling him before but at the same time he understood why they did what they did. That didn’t mean he had to like it.

When his brother cleared his throat he bought himself out of his musings and looked down to his sitting brother who was gesturing to Naruto with his head. He looked back up at Naruto who sported a blank face however her eyes were laughing. “Um, sorry, I didn’t catch that…” many people in the room chuckled at him and it took him a moment to realise it was people from his class and Naruto’s as well.

“I said, is there anything you wanted to add? I know the Uchiha clan had a few things they wanted to discuss to the others…” she waved a hand across the table as she finally sat down after Shisui handed her however she didn’t have any of it.

He blinked before clearing his throat, “Well… we were thinking that whilst ties with the Hyuuga had improved drastically compared to the previous generation, we could still stand to do some more. I have a Hyuuga on my team however he is my only way of communicating within the clan. The problem goes both ways.” It was one of the two things he wanted to address and by her face, she knew he wanted to say something else, “Also, communication between day and night staff needs to be improved. Whilst that doesn’t have much to do with anything here, it does at the same time. We all work for the company so if we got along better it would be in everyone’s benefit.”

Someone scoffed and when he turned his head, he saw it was Kiba Inuzuka, a member of the night staff, “You ain’t one to talk Uchiha. You’re quiet and silent even out of work.” Kiba rolled his eyes and through the corner of his eyes Sasuke saw Naruto stiffen.

Before Sasuke could say anything Naruto spoke up, although she really shouldn’t have, “That’s exactly why he’s proposed the idea Kiba.” Her voice left no room for dispute however not everyone agreed.

“Of course you would agree with him.” Muttered Ino with a small eye roll.

Naruto seemed to have heard though, “Do you care to repeat that Ino?” she quirked a brow at the shorter blonde who smiled and shook her head.

Naruto looked around the room and spoke up, “Thank-you for your input Sasuke. I will take those into account and do my best to help improve those matters. Gaara, did you have anything to add to the meeting?”

Luckily for him, the rest of the meeting went without incident, however a few of Naruto’s and his teams made light jabs at their relationship yet she alluded to nothing, then reprimanded them discreetly as well.

Agendas that were bought up were mostly about communication, sharing staff, having senior members train the inexperienced in fields they would be suited for. Eight members had bought up the same matter; the nine clans. He didn’t know much about the nine clans so he would have to ask Naruto about it later since it looked like his brother was unsure about it as well. All he did know was when the nine clans met, it was rare for the other clans to join an as far as he was aware, this was the first time in 14 years they were all joined for a meeting. The clans generally had meetings roughly once a year but they didn’t have nearly as many people as this meeting.

After an hour and a half the whole meeting was over and nearly everyone had a paper booklet about things they wanted to know. The only ones without it were Sasuke, Itachi, Gaara and his siblings. Everyone else wanted further information about the things bought up in the meeting.

Everyone left after handing Naruto their contact information and went on their own way. Itachi and Shisui had also gone to go do their own thing till the meeting with Naruto took place in just under two hours.

Plenty of time.

As soon as they had all left the room he went to the door and locked it, placing his forehead against the cool metal. There were no cameras and all the walls were solid and sound proof. The leader of Hokage industries doesn’t mess around with confidentiality.

He still hadn’t turned around and instead listened to the sounds Naruto was making, she was fiddling with papers and the sound was water splashing caught his attention and he turned around, leaning against the door. She looked up and saw his questioning gaze and answered his unasked question, “I don’t have anything I didn’t see be made. Or made by people I know and trust. Whilst I trust Shisui to not have poisoned it, that doesn’t mean someone else didn’t tamper with the coffee before he went to it. I learnt the hard way what it was like to be poisoned due to not being cautious.” She gave him a rueful smile as she recalled the memory.

“I didn’t know you had been poisoned.” He replied weakly.

“There’s a lot we don’t know about each other. I was a slow learner at first and that ended up in three more poisonings and two of them nearly did me in.” she leaned against the table as she clutched her stomach with a grimace. “Since then, I’ve built up a tolerance by poisoning myself and giving the cure whenever the symptoms got really bad.” She shrugged her shoulders in feigned indifference but Sasuke was not his brother who would have fallen for it. Nor was he Shisui to go along with this conversation.

“How about we don’t ignore the matter at hand.” He replied, hoping he sounded stern. She wasn’t making it easy since she had let her hair down and undone a few of her buttons but he refused to get distracted.

Yet.

She rolled her head then looked at him, “There’s nothing to discuss. We both lied to each other to protect the other. You’re Sasuke Uchiha, the guy I proclaimed a bastard for never wanting to meet me for a spar. I’m the annoying guy who thinks with his fists. Also the leader and protector of the clans.”

Having had enough of her evasiveness he went to her and trapped her between his arms. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

She quirked a brow but otherwise gave nothing away, “Would you prefer I refer to the fact your screwing your rival and leader? Or perhaps that you’re family murdered mine in cold blood? Or perhaps the fact that I know who murdered your father?”

He blinked, “Well first of all I don’t care that I’m bedding you, everyone else can kiss my ass if they have a problem with us. The second one… we can discuss that later. The third, I want details. Now.”

A fire lit her eyes as she tried to shove at him yet he wasn’t having any of it today. She knew who murdered his father, why wasn’t she telling him? “And what will you do when I tell you? What will you do to those who killed your father?”  

His glared at her, not understanding why she was asking so obvious, “Well that should be obvious, get justice for his murder. My dad was an ass-hole but my mother loved him so much she killed herself because of his death. Tell me.” he took gripped her forearms and clenched, trying to get her to tell him.

There was something in her eye that left as soon as it came, “No. The people who murdered him… it was because he had nearly killed a woman however he did manage to kill the unborn child in her womb. If I had known at the time I would have let him rot in our prison and when I became of age, I would have killed him myself.”

Her answer only served to feed the fire he was brewing inside and the glint came back into her eyes. It was enough for him to let go of her and stumble back.

Fear.

She was scared of him.

His blood ran cold and his throat clogged, “Naru I-”

She gave a look that told him to shut up as she rubbed her arms before she rolled up a sleeve her shirt and they both saw the bruises on her arm and she turned around so she couldn’t see him. He gulped before talking again, it wasn’t easy due to the fact he had a rock in his throat and stomach, “I am so, so sorry, hime. I don’t-” he swallowed and raised his hands as he approached her. He could see tears in her reflection as he stood behind her. “Say something. Please.”

He did all he could to make sure he didn’t move despite wanting nothing more than to turn her around and have her cry into his chest.

He was an idiot.

A complete and utter idiot.

Naruto wasn’t affected by words, actions meant more to her than meaningless words, despite this, her words meant a lot.

He gently grasped her wrist and turned her around, throwing an arm over her shoulder as he let her do as she pleased to him.

Cry on him or hit him.

It seemed she liked to hit him and did so a few times before crying silently. Hearing no sound from her tears seemed to hit him more than when his parents passing news had been told to him.

It was a reminder that she had suffered a fate similar to his own, if not worse. At least he didn’t have to see the person who had killed his father waltz around his home trying to kill him. Nor did his life alter so dramatically afterwards either.

She stopped crying a few minutes later and he took the opportunity to kiss her, lightly as to not startle her. She didn’t respond at first, not that he expected her to and after a few seconds she shoved him causing him to stumble backwards and to fall in her chair.

She looked to the clock then looked to the door and back at him. She removed her tie and came over to him and took a hold of his hands, tying them to the back of the chair, he did nothing to stop her and simply watched her do her thing.

She unbound her hair, allowing it to fall past her shoulders as she started unbuttoning her shirt and threw it over the table. She toyed around with her belt buckle next before talking, “First; I hate dressing as a guy since getting pants off is a pain in the ass. Second; I wanna see what our angry and makeup sex is like…” with that she removed her remaining clothing and made quick work of his as well.

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	14. Carrying on

“Okay… whilst that was amazing… can we finish our conversation from before?” asked Sasuke. For the comment, Naruto felt like slapping him. The sooner he realised she wasn’t going to tell him who murdered his father, the better.

“Sasuke, I love you to bits, but ask me that again, I’ll smack you over the head.” She replied slowly. She didn’t want them to have another argument, the last one was bad enough and it was nowhere near as bad as Inaho’s and Itachi’s arguments.

Sasuke’s movements stilled before he slowly turned to look at her, she was in the middle of getting redressed as they had less than a half hour before the other two Uchiha arrived, meaning they had to talk and get sorted quickly.

He kept on staring at her causing her to flush slightly, unsure as to why he was staring, “Why are you staring? Is there a hickey I haven’t covered?” she turned her head in hopes she would be able to see the assumed hickey but found no such luck.

“You said you love me…” he trailed off, eyes wide as he gazed into her eyes. Now that she thought back to what she said, she turned a bright red and swallowed, trying to hide her face from his view yet he got up and went to her. He turned her around gently by the wrists as he looked her in the eye, “Say it again.” He demanded however his voice was soft in its order.

 “No.” she stepped back yet his hold on her wrist remained yet never tightened. Her gaze softened, he was afraid of hurting her again. Sighing she looked up at him. It was infuriating, Sasuke was a total of 1.5 inches taller than she was. She wasn’t used to being the short one, she was the tallest in the night shift despite being a girl. Girls can be tall.

She removed her wrist from his hold as she placed the hand to his face, “Why do you want me to say it?”

She toyed with the baby hairs on the nape of his neck as she waited for an answer, “I haven’t heard someone say those words to me and _mean_ them in their heart like you would since my mother. My brother has his own strange way of saying it but it’s not same. Please?”

Sasuke had always been too prideful so with that simple word the tension in her deflated as she resigned herself to repeat herself, “I love you.” She held a defiant gaze, daring him to say something snarky to her yet none came. Instead, he leaned down and picked her up, spinning her in the air causing her to laugh. No one had spun her around like that in years.

He lowered her so she was equal length to him, so she hovered in the air with him as her only way of staying up. He said nothing in reply however his smile was all the words that she needed. True, she would have preferred if he had given her a straight answer in return however she knew, even if he didn’t love her yet, he was on his way.

He gave her a kiss as he slowly lowered her to the ground and allowed her to get redressed. He had already dressed himself however looked thoroughly ravished. It was a good look on him especially in a suit whilst in the board room.

It took her another ten minutes to fix her clothes, binds, and her hair before she sat down on her chair again. Moving her papers to the side she sighed and ran a hand through her hair before looking up with a business mask on, Sasuke followed suit. “We’ll wait for your brother and cousin to come and in the meantime why don’t you tell me how long you’ve known who I am and why you didn’t tell me?”

Sasuke held her gaze and never flinched, “I only found out last night when you asked me to pay on your card, the name was Naruto Uzumaki…”

“You seemed agitated and somewhat angry last night when the pizza guy came, did it have to do with me?”

He nodded and gave a lengthy pause before replying, “I wasn’t angry at you but more to myself. The signs were all there and I completely ignored them. Whilst I acknowledged that you were deadly I didn’t think you would be in this line of work. Last night I could have smacked myself with one of my rifles if I wasn’t afraid of damaging them.” He shook his head, he was rambling and he knew it.

Naruto hummed in response and they both turned around when a knock emanated from the door. She gestured for Sasuke to get it as she opened up her notes.

Itachi and Shisui entered the room, the former quirking a brow and the other looking very giddy. “Why are you in such a good mood? I’ve still gotta whip your ass into shape for not telling me ya’ know.”

At her response Itachi’s eyes gained a glint in them and Shisui turned paler than usual.

“But of course I’ll have to do that outside of this meeting. I wanted to talk to you three together since we’ll obviously be seeing a lot of each other in the foreseeable future and we need to be on the same page.”

They all took seats, Itachi and Shisui on her right and Sasuke on her left. “If that is the case, why not discuss this with the others earlier?” asked Shisui when no one asked.

“Quite simple. I don’t want to air anything we don’t want others knowing. Outside of Shisui the only other person who knows everything is Gaara since we’re in the same age group so it made sense. But this is something we need to sort out. I hate the Uchiha’s and I don’t deny it. Everyone here knows why. However I try to not let it interfere with my work and clearly I haven’t been as good about that as I thought. I should have known who the heads of the clan were by face and not only name. I only know a handful of Uchiha who work for the company but that isn’t enough. I can’t return to Konoha since the nine clan leaders are here and I can’t ask your whole clan to come here.

“Instead, I want to conference call the elders and influential personnel’s and discuss what we are discussing here with them. It will also give me insight to them as well as vice-versa. Is that alright?” she looked to Itachi when asking however had been looking between the three of them as she discussed the first thing.

When he nodded she let out a tired sigh, “Another thing is something I hadn’t thought of before but now I know so I thought of this. Sasuke and I are dating, your clan won’t have a problem with they? Because if they do they have to suck it up.”

They all let out small chuckles before he replied, “They will have initial problems with you being a leader outside of the clan however it shouldn’t be a very big problem. I should be able to persuade them to see your two’s side of things eventually but I’d hold off telling anyone back home till the conference call.”

She unconsciously nodded before continuing, “Shisui and Itachi. Care to explain all the secrets you’ve been keeping from your leader and protector?”

She didn’t need to explain which secrets she was referring to, her eyes and general demeanour as well as her adjustment of her ring were understandable hints.

They gave away no sign of what they were feeling but Naruto knew for sure they were ever so slightly frightened. Whilst she usually held back, she was quite a monster when it came to a serious fight.

Shisui didn’t quite care for living apparently as he shrugged, “I was enjoying everything far too much to interfere. That and the both of you asked me to keep quiet so I did.” His smile was that of pure innocence but Naruto knew he was anything but innocent.

She gave him a blank look before looking towards Itachi, “I was simply watching how the situation progressed. I didn’t know who you were at first however once I looked further into you I found out and decided against saying anything. When I spoke to Inaho she cleared somethings up for me and I didn’t wish for my family name to… upset your relationship with my brother. The two of you are a lovely couple and I wish for that to remain if it can.”

Naruto didn’t miss the subtle hint in his words. He was practically giving his blessing over the two of them, however that was most likely to score favours in her book. If Naruto wished to, she could easily order Inaho to never speak to Itachi again and he knew it. 

“I may not like you very much Itachi, and that would mostly be because I don’t want to know you very much. I know what I need to know about you and that’s it. Sasuke, Shisui and Inaho have told me plenty of things about you and that also feeds me with more knowledge than I want to know. But… you make my aunt happy, as long as I don’t have any reason to do otherwise, I will not object to your relationship.”

Her voice was monotone as she spoke yet it was enough to ease some of the tension that had made his back rigid as he gave her a smile. Unsure how to respond to the smile she kept her face as it was before allowing them a turn to speak, her back leaning against the seat.

Shisui was the one to speak first, “Given everything you had been told, how could you not realise who Sasuke was?”

She held back a cringe, she hadn’t expected that question. “Well… I know you said Itachi was your cousin but I always just assumed he was, like, a branch family member or maybe someone outside the family. I didn’t think Inaho would want to marry someone related to the people that murdered my parents so that just solidified my thoughts. Then when I was told Itachi was Sasuke’s brother I still thought nothing of it. I mean, sure Sasuke it pretty dangerous ‘tebayo but I didn’t see him as a person dangerous enough to be in out line of work. He always… held back you can say. That and we didn’t really talk to each other a lot when we lived next door to each other.”

Shisui leaned forwards, palms under his chin as he rested his elbows on the table, “Yeah about that. Clearly the two of you didn’t get along very well yet I could see you had the biggest brush on him on the planet.”

Naruto had trained herself to never allow Shisui and his perverted words to affect her face however this wasn’t something she was used to and she turned a feint shade of pink.

Clearing her throat she spoke, “W-well…” she looked to Sasuke only to see him smiling behind his close fist, eyes laughing at her. Traitorous bastard. “I decline to answer that question.”

“On what grounds?” spoke Itachi who had the same glint in his eyes that Shisui had.

“On the grounds that I am your leader and therefore none of you need to know anything about my personal life.” She held her chin up, hoping the two of them would drop the conversation but knew that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

“You and I both know that won’t work on me. I am your guar and protector. I have to know everything, and I tend to know everything. Like that time you got mad at Sasuke for playing loud music so in turn you played-”

She smacked both of her hands in front of his mouth, red faced and clearly mortified by that incident. “I want to hear this.” Spoke Sasuke however her glare had him shutting up faster than you could say Konoha. She then gave a similar look to Shisui who rolled his eyes and nodded his head.

Sighing she rubbed her face. She was sleepy having had less sleep these past few nights and she still had places to go. She stood up and the boys followed suit.

“Shisui I know you’re meant to be my guard but I-”

“It doesn’t matter what you do, I still need to escort you. Well, me or Sasuke that is.” He gave her a pointed look with defiance lurking behind it so she sighed once again, shaking her head as she knew he wasn’t going to budge.

“Gaara’s called me to have a meeting with him over tea with his siblings so I need to attend that. In private.” She emphasized the final sentence as she spoke.

He simply shrugged, “I can stay in the background where I can’t hear, but I need to be able to see you.” 

She gave a resigned sigh as she knew no matter what she said, he wasn’t going to relent. The four of them made their way downstairs however she took no notice that she was being watched by many members of the assassination company watching her as she gave Sasuke a kiss goodbye, stating she would be home in time to cook them dinner.

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**Right that’s the end of this chapter and I know it’s been a long time and this is a short chapter. I intend to make that up with the short omake underneath. Enjoy but keep in mind this is not actually a part of my story but just a little thing that came to my mind a short while ago. Oh and I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and New Year.**

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Naruto smiled as she looked at her photo album. It was an early gift Sasuke had demanded she open the night of Christmas Eve and she loved it. It was full from front to back of pictures of herself, himself and their family.

She looked up when Sasuke sat himself next to her and took a hold of her hand before kissing her knuckles. “It’s nice to see that you like it.” He gave her one of his rare smiles his kept for her only, refusing to smile in the company of others.

She leaned forwards and gave him a gentle kiss, “I love it.” She leaned back and allowed her fingers to brush the corners of the album cover, “I don’t know when you took all of them though…”

He moved the photo album off her lap as he raised her across his lap, his chin resting on her head as they looked at the fireplace. Neither of them spoke a word and in this case it wasn’t necessary, quiet times like these had become rare making the couple cherish such moments for as long as they had them.

The grandfather clock struck twelve causing Naruto to chuckle, Sasuke as well as they both recalled different past Christmas’ back when they were neighbours.

Naruto detached herself from Sasuke as she moved to get a long but thin box neatly wrapped. He had no doubt in his mind she had requested a friend to wrap it for her, Naruto’s wrapping was appalling and this was neatly done.

She raised a brow and spoke, “My wrapping is not appalling and as for this one. I did wrap it myself, with direct supervision and help from others.” She threw it over to Sasuke and sat down on the coffee table.

He furrowed his brows so she rolled her eyes before gesturing for him to open it. Slowly and carefully he opened the neatly wrapped present unsure what to expect. It was in a box the size of Naruto’s hand roughly and a few centimetres wide so he assumed it was a pen or something similar, however he was unsure as to why she would get him something like that when he had many pens he never used.

He removed the lid of the box and blinked at the contents. It wasn’t a pen. It was long, not very wide, white and had a pink lid. It also had two very prominent pink lines. He looked up to Naruto, certain his face looked like that of a fish out of water before looking back at the present.

He pointed to the box before pointing to her, “You- we- me?” clearly this amused her greatly as she leaned forwards, clutching her stomach as she laughed loudly.

It took a moment however he gave her a smile despite his shock. Hearing her laugh freely like this was also something that had become rare as of late.

However he didn’t dwell on that thought for very long as he resumed gaping at her present. His blonde girlfriend was showing no signs of calming down so he placed the present down before gently grabbing a hold of her upper arms, eyes wide as he looked at her.

“Is that what I think it is?” he asked her, already knowing what it was but he really needed to hear it from her.

She gave a large smile before nodding vigorously and placed a hand over her belly, “I’m pregnant.”

Despite his pause her smile never wavered, however after five seconds her got up and picked her with him, spinning her in the air as he did so. For the first time in a while he let out loud laughs as did Naruto, both clearly happy about the news.

Placing her down she took a hold of his elbows to calm herself down, a hand placed over her belly. He shook his head for being an idiot, he should have seen the signs earlier.

“How long?” he had a distinct idea how long but needed her to clarify in case he was wrong.

“Seven weeks. I’m honestly surprised you hadn’t put two and two together already.”

“Don’t worry, I’m berating myself as it is. It makes sense though, you haven’t asked me to get you your monthly essentials and I haven’t seen you getting any either. Then there’s the sickness you’ve been having the past two weeks… Well your present has outdone my main one which I had planned to give later but where’s the fin in that eh?”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring, causing her eyes to widen in understanding and recognition. A few weeks ago Shikamaru had requested the two of them come with him to select Temari and engagement ring and he had seen Naruto’s eyes transfixed on the ring in his hand.

It was fairly simple, oval shaped white diamond held in rose gold with a paisley pattern from the Milgrain collection. He had wanted to get her something that stood out more since it would have suited her personality a bit more however he knew she liked it and had stated it was beautiful at the time.

“Naruto… Will you marry me?”

 

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m just gonna stop here. Hehe. Again, I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and New Year.   
> This marks the end to part one of this fanfiction. There should be a total of three parts but I may change that, despite how long it’s been since I’ve updated, finishing this part means I will focus on my other fanfictions till I’m happy at where I’ve left them off, but I’m not abandoning, just delaying.   
> Thank-you and till next time.


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